Favorite Creative Nonfiction: 4th Quarter 2021

As I was putting this post together it dawned on me that these six pieces are all family stories. Each is poignant, personal, and an example of heart stopping story-telling. Barlow Adams allows us a look into families of circumstance. … Continue reading Favorite Creative Nonfiction: 4th Quarter 2021

Pandemic Reading: Writers Share Their Picks

With the pandemic now (arguably) in it’s 8th month, I’ve been noticing lots of talk about books on social media. It looks like reading is enjoying a boom and that’s a good thing! In the past few months, though, I find that my reading choices are pickier than usual. Memoirs and Poetry are probably my favorite genres but I have loved a good dystopian novel (read Blindness by Jose Saramago or Station Eleven by Emily St. Mandel). However, I seem to have lost my taste for the dystopian in books and in tv. When I try to read or watch, … Continue reading Pandemic Reading: Writers Share Their Picks

#WITMonth : My Mother is a River

“I’m not graceful, nor light-hearted. I’m tethered to the ground, teeth grinding on the links of my chain. My mother, that’s what I’ve labelled every limit. I have charged her with the imperfection of my flight. She’s been my excuse. She’s the cause, and the reason. My mother is a tree. In her shade I have absolved myself. It’s shrivelling, the shade too shrinks away. Soon I’ll be exposed.” My Mother is a River, by Italian writer Donatella Di Pietrantonio and translated by Franca Scurti Simpson, is the story of a mother and a daughter and the often rocky road of their relationship. But … Continue reading #WITMonth : My Mother is a River

I Was Bookjacked by Lidia Yuknavitch

My WIT Month reading has gotten off to a shaky start. I was about a fourth of the way through Aimez – Vous Brahms when Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water (not a translated book) bookjacked me. Really. Once I began reading TCoW there was no looking back, there was no reading anything else, there was practically no other activity out of me other than reading that book. It all began with an essay I read in Guernica by Lidia which I wildly loved and propelled me to finally read this book, her memoir, which had been on … Continue reading I Was Bookjacked by Lidia Yuknavitch