By Alice Lowe
I have no frame of reference for Ernaux’s memories of the restrictions and reconstruction of postwar Europe, of the domination of the Catholic Church and attending all-girl convent schools. I’m not yet a part of her collective “we.” But then she describes a photo of herself in 1955, wearing a short-sleeved sweater, polka-dot skirt, and ballerina flats, and I see myself.
By Ericka Taylor
What I found interesting, in writing this book, was my growing awareness that these damaged people are nevertheless united by a strong sense of duty to one another, and that even within their difficult and often hurtful relationships, there is, at bottom, a real love for one another, something inviolable about family bonds.
by Mollie Weisenfeld
An exciting lineup of five 2018 bloomer releases, new translations, and re-releases — get ready for fall reading!
by Joan Schweighardt
“I started [a book] some years ago called ‘Emma: An Unlived Life.’ I planned on leaving it as a suicide note. I guess it will never get read now.”
by Evelyn Somers
“At first there was this impulse to undercut [suspense and mystery] with irony to show, I don’t know, that I was too smart and high-minded to mean it, but I didn’t do that, and it became fascinating to try and write the scenes and twists well, to go all in.”
by Vanessa Hua
“No one in this world understood the journey she’d taken, the threats and disappointments she’d overcome, and how thin the line between survival and failure.”
by Lisa Peet
I was used to juggling my self-perception and other people’s views of me as a black person and as a woman, from within and without. But now what I took as me seemed almost inconsequential as my essence shriveled to my age. This was something new.
by Ericka Taylor
“I wasn’t sure that I could create fiction that adults would want to read. My self-doubt flourishes. I applied to grad school at the University of San Francisco in creative nonfiction, was rejected, and, pissed off, signed up for an intro to fiction class at UC Berkeley Extension. I was terrified, but terror is good.”
by Joe Schuster
“I had these three different kinds of stories—the “girl” stories, the gritty Appalachia stories and these weird stories—and I thought, “This is what I have. I am just going to throw it out there and see if it’s a book.” Continue reading
by Maddie King
“The words ‘genre’ and ‘hybrid’ actually make me uneasy . . . when you’re writing, the work doesn’t care what you call it.” Continue reading
by Paul Seward
It is not simply that its construction and mechanism permit this single small pump to push our entire blood supply through our lungs, then through our body and back again. It is also that, beginning well before we are born, it does that exercise approximately once every second for our entire life. Continue reading
by Athena Kildegaard
“I really want justice for my characters, many of whom are children, and I want their travails in their world to be acknowledged.” Continue reading
by Elizabeth Garber
After I had constructed my memoir, one of my mentors reassured me, “Don’t worry, your poetry is alive and well in your prose.” Continue reading
by Joan Schweighardt
“There’s so much more info about people transitioning, more awareness, but while people are not as shocked as they might have been thirty years ago, they are still shocked.” Continue reading
by Sonya Terjanian
Self actualization is by nature an inwardly-focused pursuit, but we must try to do it with our eyes open . . . understanding the origins of our opportunity, supporting others on the same journey, and lifting up those who weren’t born with the same privilege. Continue reading
