Sorrow Is Not My Name Archive What’s the Point: How Sherman Alexie, Ross Gay, and Tommy Pico Write About Pain Author: Michelle Betters | Sep122023 Categories: Critical Essays No comments A few weeks after the release of his memoir, Sherman Alexie cancelled the second half of his national book tour. “I have been rebreaking my heart night after night,” he explained. Writing about pain had become a process of inflicting it on himself.