It’s been five days since our panel at the Kentucky Women Writer’s Conference; we’ve received heartening feedback from those who participated and are grateful to all who sent us notes and comments.
For those who couldn’t make it, a brief recap: we planned the panel intent on being succinct, and so briefly told three stories—how KaBooM began; how the anthology took shape as our collective project; and how the physical book became a tangible art object. We offered specific suggestions on the inner workings of writing groups, such as holding members accountable to writing goals set weekly. And we demonstrated a critique method that both honored the writing process while demanding the rigor of a continually developing craft.
What we did not emphasize was the world’s deep need for the work contained between two hand-crafted covers. A friend who’d not been at the conference asked me, the day after, to read a few pages of When the Bough Breaks. After a few lines from several pieces, she looked at me with wide eyes and said: “This is a good book!” I thought “Well, of course it is!”
Jan introduces our panel at the Ky. Women Writers Conference
This, then, is my brief statement, what I hope everyone who visits this web site knows: through fiction, poetry, and prose, When the Bough Breaks contains characters and narrators who face moments when their worlds are wrenched and rattled—by the birth of a first child, job loss, a cancer diagnosis, a state mired in war, killing, selfishness and hatred, the hard work of aging, grief, the healing balm of solitude. The writing is tough, tender, true. This anthology took shape because we knew this work deserved a worthy vehicle.
We can’t wait till you can read it for yourself.
When the Bough Breaks itself is an affirmation. While true, that in the pieces, characters struggle, for life is a struggle, there is also joy and laughter, clarity and great humor, beauty and triumph. When the inspirational bough fell, there was life anew, a scattering of seeds, of hope in the midst of disaster, a story the introduction tells with tenderness.
Indeed, this IS a good book, for its content, for the labor of love behind its creation and for the beat of generous hearts who encouraged one another and who, in good turn, encourage us. Through the leaves of a tree become the pages of this good book, and the authors’ traveling presence(s), we are encouraged to witness the pen’s fruition.
I purchased the book at the conference, opened it at random to a poem by Pam Sexton, “Trip.” It spoke directly to my core, called up tears I had to put aside just then, but which have revisited me upon later readings. I have since welcomed them and always will. All good poems take us places we have never been but we still know. They provide us words for what we recognize but cannot speak. A few good poems go there with us, hand in hand, soul with soul.
Find these ladies at a bookfair, send in the form, but either way, reach in those jeans and pull out the greens to purchase “When the Bough Breaks.” It’s hard-times money, well spent, to nod, smile, weep, and rejoice in the pure strength of encouragment.
My thanks.