"Leax writes an unvarnished prose, easy and graceful and blunt all at once."

"Grace Is Where I Live abounds in plainspoken profundity."

"Grace Is Where I Live is an engaging and informative series of reflections upon aspects of the writer's identity and art. In the informal and intimate tradition of the personal essayist, John Leax invites the reader to share his life and the experiences that shaped his vocation as a writer. In the course of doing so he leads us through the critical questions that [all writers] serious about . . . vocation must ask—and especially those committed to a Christian worldview.

Leax's reasoned scrutiny of the steps that led him to become a writer could well spare some students the particular anguishes and cul-de-sacs that lie in wait for those tugged in several vocational directions. The chapter 'Giving Up Everything' I think is especially valuable in this regard—it goes to the heart of the matter."

"While Leax belongs by commitment and heritage to the evangelical community (both his 'primary audience' and his 'most troubling' one), he echoes the work of no other writer in the stables of evangelical publishing. 'I am less and less sure of what I have to say,' he muses. One thing he knows is that 'language and reality are inextricably bound.' With that as a given, he sees three possible 'strategies.' He can 'choose silence . . . the way of the mystic and my late dog, Poon.' He can accept 'the language of [his] culture group as final, and . . . speak cliches and platitudes.' Or he can 'consciously choose the creative responsibility of language.' The latter is clearly his choice."

"John Leax makes the most promising attempt I have seen to enlighten novice writers, and he does it in a refreshingly lucid prose, unpolluted with the ego that so often finds its way into the best writers' words."