	Bender's many books on writing include "Creative Writing DeMystified, Writing and Publishing Personal Essays, Writing in a New Convertible with the Top Down, Keeping a Journal You Love, A Year in the Life: Journaling for Self-Discovery, The Writer's Journal: Forty Writer's and Their Journals", and "Perfect Phrases for College Application Essays". Her memoir, "A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief", chronicles how reading and writing poetry helped her cope after the loss of her 25-year-old son and find a way to live with love in the spirit of her son. Her newest collection of poems, entitled "Behind Us the Way Grows Wider", appeared in 2012.