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Tzippy is a wealthy widow, feisty, determined, vain and living in Florida. Her three children will be visiting for Tzippy’s 80th birthday celebration and will be bringing with them the old wounds that Tzippy did more than her fair share to inflict. As her birthday approaches, the death of a close friend as well as the aches, pains and daily indignities of aging are preying on her mind. Tzippy wonders how she will be remembered? Her relationship with her children is not good, particularly with Shari, her youngest and most screwed up. Shari is a problem drinker and still plagued by the eating disorder she’s had since adolescence. She always blamed her mother for her problems and lately Tzippy has had the uncomfortable feeling Shari may be right. On the day of the party, on edge and anxious, Tzippy decides on a shopping trip to Saks which is always her quick fix, and while there, sees a brooch she wants, but not enough to pay for it. It finds its way into her purse and as she is making her get away—unlike the other times—she is caught and hauled off to the police station. Now that Tzippy is turning 80, there is not an infinite amount of time left. Will She be able to repair the damage that has taken a lifetime to create? Author: Patricia Striar Rohner Publication Date: October 18, 2016 -
“Michael's memoir, The Sportcaster's Daughter, cozies up to you and breaks your heart. It's a long, deep look at family dysfunction in the suburbs and the devastation of an unrequited love for a family. You'll find echoes of Karr and Walls--read it.” —Stephanie Jay Evans, author of Faithful Unto Death Cindi Michael appears to live a charmed life: she’s happily married, has a successful career, and is a loving mom to two wonderful children. Yet she longs for a father who hasn’t spoken to her in twenty years, and even secretly watches him on TV when the longing becomes unbearable. When Cindi was eleven, her father fought for sole custody of her and her siblings, raising three children on his own despite being a bachelor and rock ’n’ roll DJ in New York. But with his rising fame as the host of the popular show Sports Machine, his 80-hour-a-week work schedule, and his second marriage, the close relationship Cindi shared with her father began to crack; she did everything to earn his love and attention, but for perfectionist George, it was never enough—and when she was eighteen and a freshman in college, in a burst of anger he told her never to come home again. As the years went on, Cindi struggled to steel her heart while still remaining hopeful that they would one day reconcile, just as her father did with his own dad, and transcend painful family patterns that span generations. Candid, moving, and ultimately hopeful, The Sportscaster’s Daughter is a family story of forgiveness, faith, and strength. Author: Cindi Michael Publication Date: August 23, 2016 -
The Magic of Memoir is a memoirist’s companion for when the going gets tough. Editors Linda Joy Myers and Brooke Warner have taught and coached hundreds of memoirists to the completion of their memoirs, and they know that the journey is fraught with belittling messages from both the inner critic and naysayers, voices that make it hard to stay on course with the writing and completion of a book. In The Magic of Memoir, 38 writers share their hard-won wisdom, stories, and writing tips. Included are Myers’s and Warner’s interviews with best-selling and widely renown memoirists Mary Karr, Elizabeth Gilbert, Dr. Azar Nafisi, Dani Shapiro, Margo Jefferson, Raquel Cepeda, Jessica Valenti, Daisy Hernández, Mark Matousek, and Sue William Silverman. This collection has something for anyone who’s on the journey or about to embark on it. If you’re looking for inspiration, The Magic of Memoir will be a valuable companion. Author: Brooke Warner Publication Date: November 15, 2016 -
Supervision is a critical function of leadership that is often overlooked, and yet the quality of supervision is often what makes or breaks a leader—and an organization. Let’s Talk about Supervision is full of bite-size ideas for how to become a more effective supervisor, including advice on how to be clear about expectations, giving helpful feedback, manage yourself, and more. Each chapter is structured around how you approach a part of your work as a supervisor: how you talk, how you think about others, how you run meetings, how you lead, and more. Whether you’re a front-line supervisor or a CEO, this book will help you sharpen your skills and improve morale by transforming your supervision skills into user-friendly tactics that work. Author: Rita Sever Publication Date: August 23, 2016 -
“This is a genuine love story that thoughtfully considers all the ways real-world obstacles conspire against a simple romance. A beautiful examination of a family and the sometimes-fragile ligatures that bind its members.” ―Kirkus Reviews, selected by Indie Editors as a review in the Oct 2016 issues Stepmother tells the story of Marianne Lile, who met a man, fell in love, got married, and arrived home from the honeymoon with a new label: stepmom. It was a role she initially embraced—but she quickly discovered she was alone in a difficult situation, with no handbook and no mentor. Here, Lile describes the complexities of the stepmom position, in a family and in the community, and shares her experience wearing a tag that is often misunderstood and weighed down by the numerous myths in society. Candid and poignant, Stepmother is a story of love and like, resentments and exasperation, resignation and hope—and a story, ultimately, of family. Author: Marianne Lile Publication Date: September 27, 2016 -
“It’s a jolly, lighthearted narrative, JoJo Moyes’ Me Before You (2012) for foodies. Like a slice of a favorite dessert, thoroughly enjoyable, but gone too soon.” —Kirkus Reviews “Size Matters offers the perfect blend of romance and friendship with a dash of culinary wit.” —Redbook John Frederick is a man of considerable substance, in every sense of the word. Rich, intelligent, reclusive, and very large, John Frederick lives to eat. His everyday needs are tended to by Mrs. Floyd, his house manager, and by a never-ending parade of personal chefs. Enter Lexie Alexander, the latest applicant for that once-again vacant position. A young woman of magical sensibilities, fresh out of culinary school and still recovering from a recent personal tragedy, Lexie lives to cook. As time passes, a love of food, musical comedy, and tea begins to weave a connection between John Frederick and his new chef—but then a major medical crisis completely turns life at Frederick House upside down, threatening the bond John Frederick and Lexie have forged. Size Matters is the story of how people interact with each other and with the world, and what happens when the structure of a person’s life, their self-image, and all their familiar coping mechanisms are shattered. Author: Cathryn Novak Publication Date: November 22, 2016 -
2016 Foreward INDIE Awards Finalist, Science Fiction 2016 Indie Fab Finalist, Science Fiction 2017 National Indie Excellence Finalist, Regional Fiction: Southeast On Memorial Day, a series of bomb explosions shuts down major cities across the US. Her apartment in ruins, Sabine flees Washington DC and begins a grueling journey on foot that brings her to West Virginia, where she finds safety at an abandoned farmhouse with other refugees. For Sabine, family is a vague memory—she can’t even remember her last name. Without an identity, she hides—although thirty-five, she pretends to be twenty-eight, even to the refugee she falls in love with. But Sabine wants to recover her identity. Despite gangs, bombings, riots, and spreading disease, she longs to return to a family she has begun to recall—a mother, a father, and brothers. Are they alive, surviving, in hiding as she is? Do they await news, and hope to reconcile? Even in harrowing times, Sabine’s desires to belong and to be loved pull her away from shelter. Author: Lenore Gay Publication Date: August 9, 2016 -
"In her debut memoir, Meadows memorializes her daughter while deploring the state of adolescent mental health care. The book’s power comes from the way Meadows lucidly analyzes her own story to identify larger systematic issues in mental health care for young people. The memoir also includes basic advice and resources for struggling teens and their families. An intense, moving account of raising and mourning a child with mental illness.” ―Kirkus Reviews Karen Meadows had a normal, happy family until depression consumed her daughter, Sadie—a struggle that ended with Sadie’s suicide at age eighteen. In Searching for Normal, Meadows shares her family’s journey as she tries to help her daughter Sadie cope with her mental illness, expertly intertwining her own storyline with excerpts from her daughter’s diaries. The years Meadows chronicles are characterized by Sadie’s heartbreaking bouts of running away, cutting, and living with Portland street families while Karen and her husband desperately search for solutions—trying medication, hospitals, therapy, wilderness and residential treatment programs, and more. Ultimately, however, they find themselves the victims of the devastating shortcomings of the US’s mental health system. Including hindsight advice from Meadows, along with an extensive list of resources that she wishes someone had provided her when she was trying to help Sadie, this book will help parents of struggling teens feel less isolated and better equipped to navigate their teenager’s mental illness. : Meadows also describes recent developments that are paving the way for better diagnoses and treatment options. Author: Karen Meadows Publication Date: November 8, 2016 -
“Bravely honest. This is a moving narrative, and one that will ultimately serve a useful guide for families and their caretakers.” —Publishers Weekly “Rough’s memoir details her experience as her mother’s primary caretaker after a cancer diagnosis, with the years leading up to her mother’s death, as well as her struggle to come to terms with her passing afterward. Readers get a first-person look at how to embrace difficult people, as well as a meditation on forgiveness.” —Library Journal When her alcoholic and emotionally abusive mother’s health declines, Joan Rough invites her to move in with her—and for the next seven years, they both struggle to maintain their own privacy and independence. Rough longs to be the “good daughter,” helping her narcissistic mother face the reality of her coming death. But her mom, convinced she will live forever, does everything she can to remain in control of her own life. When repressed memories of childhood abuse by her mother arise, Rough is filled with deep resentment and hatred toward the woman who birthed her. And when her mother finally dies, she is left with a plastic bag of her mother’s ashes and a diagnosis of PTSD. What will she do with them? Courageous and unflinchingly honest, Scattering Ashes is a powerful chronicle of letting go of a loved one, a painful past, and fear—a journey that will bring hope to others who grapple with the pain and repercussions of abuse. Author: Joan Z. Rough Publication Date: September 20, 2016 -
2017 Indie Excellence Book Award: Self-Help: General Finalist 2016 USA Best Book Awards: Self-Help: Relationships Finalist 2016 Best Indie Book Awards: Self Help: Relationships - Finalist Designed to help caregivers understand how to cope with and overcome the overwhelming challenges that arise while caregiving for a loved one—especially an aging parent—Role Reversal is a comprehensive guide to navigating the enormous daily challenges faced by caregivers. In these pages, Waichler blends her personal experience caring for her beloved father with her forty years of expertise as a patient advocate and clinical social worker. The result is a book offering invaluable information on topics ranging from estate planning to grief and anger to building a support network and finding the right level of care for your elderly parent. Author: Iris Waichler Publication Date: August 16, 2016 -
David Mariani is a successful doctor in Beverly Hills. Just as he begins to suspect a big-pharma conspiracy related to a number of his young patients, a mysterious and beautiful woman sweeps into his life, turning it upside down—but then, just as quickly as she appeared, she disappears with her young daughter, and the mild-mannered doctor finds himself pulled into the adventure of his life . . . unraveling a world of international intrigue and government conspiracies, and immersed in a genetic code mystery that could affect the future of the entire human race. Author: M. L. Stover Publication Date: October 4, 2016 -
2017 Silver Medalist, IPPY in Memoir/Personal Struggles 2017 International Book Awards, Finalist Autbiography/Memoir 2016 Best Book Awards, Finalist Women's Issues In 1994, Lizbeth Meredith said good-bye to her four- and six year-old daughters for a visit with their non-custodial father—only to learn days later that they had been kidnapped and taken to their father’s home country of Greece. Twenty-nine and just on the verge of making her dreams of financial independence for her and her daughters come true, Lizbeth now faced a $100,000 problem on a $10 an hour budget. For the next two years—fueled by memories of her own childhood kidnapping—Lizbeth traded in her small life for a life more public, traveling to the White House and Greece, and becoming a local media sensation in order to garner interest in her efforts. The generous community of Anchorage becomes Lizbeth’s makeshift family—one that is replicated by a growing number of Greeks and expats overseas who help Lizbeth navigate the turbulent path leading back to her daughters. Author: Lizbeth Meredith Publication Date: September 20, 2016 -
2017-18 Reader Views Literary Award, Adult Fiction: Finalist 2017 Winner of the National Indie Excellence Award for Regional Fiction: Northeast 2017 Distinguished Favorite in Literary Fiction by Independent Press Awards 2017 International Book Awards Finalist for Literary Fiction Have you ever wondered what the impetus was to start a certain painting? Why the artist chose to immortalize a particular subject? What if you suddenly discovered that the painting in question, your painting, was valuable? In Peregrine Island, the Peregrine family’s lives are turned upside-down one summer when so-called “art experts” appear on the doorstep of their Connecticut island home to appraise a favorite heirloom painting. When incriminating papers—and other paintings—are discovered behind the painting in question, the appraisal turns into a full-fledged investigation. Flattered at first by the art museum’s unanticipated interest, the family members quickly change their attitudes with the arrival of detectives on their terrace and the illusory but repeated appearance of a stranger reported to be concealed in a cove. The now-antagonistic family—grandmother, mother, and child—consequently begin to suspect one another, as well as the shady newcomers in their midst. As the summer progresses and the investigation reveals facts about the Peregrines’ past that even they didn’t know, they learn that people are not always who they appear to be—themselves not excluded—and art is often a reflection of their own lives. More important, in uncovering the secret of the painting they come to realize that the love each unconsciously sought has been right in front of them all along. Though Peregrine Island is driven by a mystery, it is as much characterized by its ever-present sense of spiritualism, accentuated by the symbolism of the Sound, the soul of relationships, and the wisdom of the very young and the very old. Author: Diane B. Saxton Publication Date: August 2, 2016 -
“A compelling, intimately personal, insightful, and ultimately inspirational account, Painting Life: My Creative Journey Through Trauma, is very highly recommended for both community and academic library collections.” ―Midwest Book “Carol is an evolved being and talented storyteller. I found her spiritual approach to work and life truly inspirational. She shares very personal, intense, powerful life experiences that have guided her on a path to help her integrate her emotional and spiritual health. Painting Life is a gem that offers healing insights for all of us to treasure.” ―Louis deSabla, publisher of Pathways Magazine When Carol Walsh pulled her fiancé from the bottom of a diving well—dead from a massive heart attack—her life was turned upside down. Even though she was a psychotherapist working with clients suffering from trauma, this personal shock felt unbearable. Nonetheless, she had to heal herself while supporting clients—and, as a single mother, her two children. Using the creative interests she’d developed during childhood in order to emotionally save herself from a difficult mother, she fully recovered from her grief and PTSD symptoms—and as she recreated her personal, artistic, and professional life, she began to thrive. Author: Carol Walsh Publication Date: November 15, 2016 -
2016 Foreword INDIE Awards Winner, Self-Help 2016 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Medal Winner, Personal Growth 2017 BMS Book Awards Finalist, Self-Help Baggage! We all carry it with us through life. It comes in a wide variety of styles, shapes, and colors—more than enough to accommodate the stuff that we accumulate through life. And no matter how we dress it up, it’s frustrating, inconvenient, and slows us down. In fact, it’s downright disruptive. This book is about offloading emotional baggage—something that’s especially important when we realize that we don’t just pack for one; we pack for seven. Each of the seven selves—self-preservation, self-gratification, self-definition, self-acceptance, self-expression, self-reflection, and self-knowledge—has characteristics, wellness types, and shadows. Each plays a vital role in harmony, overall health, and well-being. Chock full of real-life emotional examples, as well as “keys” at the end of each chapter offering actionable tips, techniques, and exercises designed to help you unlock baggage, examine it, and offload it permanently, Note to Self will help you discover a lighter, joy-filled you! Author: Laurie Buchanan -
2017 Readers’ Choice Book Award, Gold, in Relationships 2017 Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) in Sexuality/Relationships 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Finalist, Relationships It was 1969, and all the rules were changing, when Betty, a woefully single French teacher on Long Island, met the handsome but edgy new teacher at her school, a hippie just back from Woodstock. His vitality opened up a new world to her—but when they married, his rages turned against her, and often ended with physical violence. Like millions of women who discover they’ve married an abusive man, Betty was forced to make daily decisions—to suppress her feelings or risk confrontation, to keep it secret or report, and ultimately, to live with it or leave. Part memoir, part warm-hearted look at the ’70s, and part therapeutic journey, Not Exactly Love: A Memoir is an intense and inspirational story of a woman who grew from her experience. Author: Betty Hafner Publication Date: October 11, 2016 -
2016 Best Book Award Finalist, Autobiography/Memoirs 2016 Foreward INDIE Awards Finalist, Nature 2016 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Medal Winner, Death & Dying/Grief & Loss 2017 IPPY Bronze Medal Winner, Best Regional Non-Fiction: Mid-Atlantic Marcia Mabee and her husband were a clueless suburban couple when they bought a mountain in a forgotten corner of rural Virginia as a weekend getaway—but after enchanting wildlife encounters, and a spectacular botanical discovery, they become passionate conservationists. Shortly after their property is dedicated as the Naked Mountain Natural Area Preserve, Marcia is diagnosed with ovarian cancer; and before she finishes chemotherapy, Tim is struck down with pancreatic cancer. Each has promised the other to scatter their ashes among the wildflowers on their beloved mountain, but it is Marcia who survives. In the midst of grieving so deeply she nearly loses her grip on life, Marcia meets David at Tim’s memorial service. He is there on his wife’s behalf—a woman who was Tim’s high school sweetheart, and who is now divorcing David. Months later, David calls Marcia, and they enter into an intimate relationship, compelling Marcia to struggle with the twin forces of deep grief and new love. Author: Marcia Mabee Publication Date: September 6, 2016 -
2016 Shelf Unbound Winner, Memoir 2017 IPPY Gold Medal Winner, Autobiography/Memoir “Motherlines is a deep treasure written in the inimitable voice of a woman whose work was a lighthouse for me when I first wrote Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom. There is pure gold healing in these pages. Let it touch and heal you.” —Christiane Northrup, MD, OB/GYN physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers Goddesses Never Age; Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom; and The Wisdom of Menopause When she was twenty and living a bohemian life, Patricia Reis’s mother asked, “What about your spiritual life?” Years later, this question drives her midlife quest to reconcile the desires of her body with the mandates of her spirit. During the 1980’s—a rich and turbulent period in American history when feminism, the women’s spirituality movement and liberation theology were all very much alive— Reis encounters a number of uncommon women who witness, encourage, and nourish her potential. She discovers an unlikely confidante in her maternal aunt, Ruth, a free-spirited Franciscan nun. Their many letters, and a handful of pivotal visits, bring immediacy and intimacy as they each become radicalized by feminism and a new theology of liberation. Starting in the early 1980s—a rich period in American history when feminism, the women’s spirituality movement, and liberation theology were all very much alive—and continuing over a ten-year period, Reis encounters a number of uncommon women who witness, encourage, and nurture her potential. She discovers an unlikely confidante in her maternal aunt Ruth, a free-spirited Franciscan nun. Their many letters, and a handful of pivotal visits, bring immediacy and intimacy to their unfolding relationship. Candid and compelling, Motherlines is a story of sex (with men and with women, and of abstaining altogether), illegal abortions, making vows and breaking them, spiritual practices, and creative ambition—and, at its heart, one woman’s quest for a place in her maternal lineage and a spiritual maturity outside religious concepts. Author: Patricia Reis Publication Date: October 11, 2016 -
2017 Gold Medal IPPY Award in Autobiography/Memoir “A wonderful, thoughtful and inspiring story of love and courage—the kind of tale that teaches us to take chances, and that we CAN overcome our own obstacles.” —Betsy Stone, PhD, clinical psychologist and author of Happily Ever After They first meet in Paris in the spring of 1996. David is a divorced American attorney living on a converted barged moored on the banks of the Seine; Roni Beth is single, an empty-nested clinical and research psychologist, working from her home in Connecticut. Now in their fifties, both had signed off on loving again. This memoir tells the inspiring story of their intense and transformative twenty-two month transatlantic courtship. Along the way, David the loner, living amid the beauty, freedom and pleasures of Paris, brings Roni Beth, a responsible and overextended professional haunted by earlier loss and trauma, back to her core as a woman, while she helps him reclaim connections that tie him to a larger world. They wrestle internal demons (mostly hers) and external threats (friends, family and different perspectives) as they share adventures in their respective worlds. The tensions of a romance played out across six time zones are captured through fanciful and reflective letters and fax correspondence – flirting, musing, laughing, arguing and whining. Over twenty-four Atlantic crossings, they move into the shared reality that confronts them with parts of themselves that had yearned for compassion and psychic space. As their respective needs become clear, they navigate the clutter on their paths and bridge the geographic distance with courage, joy and integrity. Author: Roni Beth Tower Publication Date: October 25, 2016 -
“A smart and uplifting tale of personal and musical renewal; an impressive debut.” —Kirkus Reviews “Magic Flute is a beautifully constructed inside-look at the world of grand opera, and the passion that accompanies the power of art.” —Bookstr Liz Morgan is a talented, ambitious flutist headed for a brilliant career. But before she can achieve the world-class recognition she craves, an accident puts an end to her dreams. Desperate to fulfill her mother’s musical legacy, she fights to reinvent her path, and settles on a new passion: singing. She even leaves San Francisco and returns to the town in Wales where she spent her early childhood to do it. But as Liz works to perfect her voice and launch a new career, she is confronted with her mother’s other legacy: the choice between the seduction of fame and the constancy of an ordinary life. Magic Flute is an intimate exploration of the world of grand opera. Amid the backstage detail is a story of passions and choices that explores the humanity behind the most dramatic of art forms. Author: Patricia Minger Publication Date: November 15, 2016 -
2016 Best Book Award Finalist, Fiction: Young Adult “Fans of meant-to-be romance stories will not be disappointed.” —VOYA “Leora Krygier weaves an eloquent story about two star-crossed lovers. I absolutely loved this heartbreaking but uplifting tale.” —Linda Schreyer, author of Tears and Tequila Destiny doesn’t factor into seventeen-year-old adoptee Maddie’s rational world, where numbers and scientific probability have always proven to be the only things she can count on as safe and reliable. Still, Maddie is also an artist who draws on instinct and intuition to create the collages she makes from photographs and the castoff scraps she saves. But when her brother falls in with a Los Angeles street gang, Maddie loses her ability to create art. Then fate deals Maddie a card she can’t ignore: Aiden, a young filmmaker she meets when a water main bursts inside a camera store. Aiden is haunted by the death of his younger brother, and a life-changing decision he must now make—whether or not to keep his baby daughter. Caught in a whirlpool of love and loss, Maddie and Aiden find that art and numbers, a mission to save endangered whales, and a worn-out copy of Moby Dick all collide to heal and save them both. Author: Leora Krygier Publication Date: September 6, 2016 -
2016 Best Book Award Winner, Fiction: African American “A laugh-out-loud look at growing up at any age told with honesty and warmth.” —Books & Life “Funny, smart and compulsively readable! Ginger McKnight has a hit on her hands. And Terry McMillan fans can rejoice that they can add a new favorite writer to their list!” —Heidi W. Durrow New York Times best-selling author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky Pitched as “a poor man’s Halle Berry,” forty-one-year-old soap star Jo Randolph, has successfully avoided waiting tables since she left Midland, Texas at eighteen. But then, in the span of twenty-four hours, Jo manages to lose her job, burn her bridges in Hollywood, and accidentally burn down her lover/director’s beach house—after which she is shipped home to Texas by her agent to stay out of sight while she sorts out her situation. The more Jo reluctantly reconnects with her Texas “roots” and the family and friends she left behind, the more she regains touch with herself as an artist and with what is meaningful in life beyond the limelight. The summer of 2007 is cathartic for Jo, whose career and lifestyle have allowed her to live like a child for forty years, but who now must transition to making grown-up decisions and taking on adult responsibilities. In the Heart of Texas is a wry, humorous commentary on the complexities of race, class, relationships, politics, popular culture, and celebrity in our current society. Author: Ginger McKnight-Chavers Publication Date: October 25, 2016 -
2016 Best Book Award Finalist, Women’s Issues "In the Game is the riveting memoir of a trailblazing woman who blasted down the locked doors that had effectively shut women out of the practice of law since the writing of the Ten Commandments. Her strength, her spirit, and her brilliance shine through these pages and show how it took all of that to overcome the enormous obstacles put in her way.” —Marcia Clark, author of crime novel Blood Defense and former O.J. Simpson prosecutor “Garrity is further proof that women really do run the world.” —Redbook.com Peggy Garrity began her life as a small-town Irish Catholic girl in the Midwest. Initially convent-bound, she became determined to escape a life like her mother’s, and in the mid-1970s she reinvented herself as a high-profile Los Angeles trial lawyer and single mother of four. At a time when there were virtually no women solo practitioners, she represented David against Goliath—and risked it all in the process. Including compelling courtroom dramas featuring would-be presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore, celebrities Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, and Cheryl Tiegs, and some of Los Angeles’s most notorious murder cases, In the Game is the groundbreaking story of a thrill-seeking solo trial lawyer—and single mother—who beat the odds at a time when working mothers, especially those in male-dominated professions like the law, faced the gauntlet of discrimination. Author: Peggy Garrity Publication Date: August 9, 2016 -
2016 Best Book Awards: Fiction: Multicultural Finalist “In a Silent Way offers a moving portrayal of a committed, young teacher-activist, Jeanna, who is determined to effect change in her urban school and community. Jeanna's culturally relevant and inclusive pedagogy, and her determination to never give up on her students, ultimately wins their respect and admiration. All the while, Hetzel makes sure to shine a much needed light on undemocratic practices and unequal gendered power dynamics in social and racial justice movements.” ―Jonathan Kozol, education activist and award-winning author of Death at an Early Age and Savage Inequalities: Children in American Schools In a Silent Way chronicles the coming of age in the late sixties of young Jeanna Kendall as she quietly facilitates a close-knit community of learners in a progressive urban school, grapples with racism and sexism within her community activist group, and experiences the extreme highs and lows of her first intimate relationship—which happens to be with a revered and powerful community leader. Jeanna encounters all the same issues we confront today: youth of color demeaned and destroyed, wise community elders discounted by leaders who “know better,” and the “sexploitation” of women in the movement. Gradually overwhelmed by the mounting challenges she faces on all fronts, and on the verge of a breakdown, a crisis emerges within her movement group that transforms everything and everyone and opens up a new world of possibilities—ones deeply relevant to us today. Author: Mary Jo Hetzel Publication Date: October 18, 2016
