Creative expression through writing helps us uncover gems of hope and serenity, enabling us to navigate difficult times. Sharing stories with one another fills the space between us, inspires us, helps us forge stronger relationships, and teaches us that we’re more alike than different. In Your Turn, renowned educator Dr. Tyra Manning offers examples of stories from her own life, followed by an invitation for readers to delve onto their own emotional histories, with plenty of room to explore on the page with writing prompts and tools. A guidebook for transformation through self-expression, Your Turn will spark readers’ creative thought and offers them a space to document their own self-reflection—helping them overcome challenges and move forward.
Author: Tyra Manning
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
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There are more outlets than ever for writers to spread their messages and share their work, more opportunities to speak out and be seen. Writers expose themselves freely and willingly in a way that would have been unfathomable fifty years ago, and more people than ever are writing and publishing. Men and women are writing with equal fervor and commitment to their message and craft. As a result, it’s easy to assume, or hope, that the gendered playing field is a thing of the past, too. Unfortunately for women writers, it’s not. Knowing what we’re up against and how to fight back is the heart and soul of Write On, Sisters! Inside these pages, Brooke Warner draws upon research, anecdotes, and her personal experiences from twenty years in the book publishing industry to show how women’s writing is discounted or less valued than men’s writing, then provides support to overcome these challenges. This book also shines light on how women writers face not only ever-present historical and social challenges but also their own self-limiting beliefs. Write On, Sisters! is for every woman writer ready to be done with all that, and who’s ready for the next revolution. -
One day, a baby girl, Tara, is found, abandoned and covered in flies. She is raised by two mothers in a community rife with rituals and superstition. As she grows, Tara pursues acceptance at all costs. Saffiya, her adoptive mother, and Bhaggan, Saffiya’s maidservant, are victims of the men in their community, and the two women, in turn, struggle and live short but complicated lives. The only way for the villagers to find solace is through the rituals of ancient belief systems. Tara lives in a village that could be any village in South Asia, and she dies, like many young women in the area, during childbirth. Her short life is dedicated to her efforts to find happiness, despite the fact that she has no hope of going to school or making any life choices in the feudal, patriarchal world in which she finds herself. Poignant and compelling, Wild Boar in the Cane Field depicts the tragedy that often characterizes the lives of those who live in South Asia―and demonstrates the heroism we are all capable of even in the face of traumatic realities. Author: Anniqua Rana Publication Date: September 17, 2019 -
Born in the Netherlands at a time when girls are to be housewives and mothers and nothing else, Hendrika de Vries is a “daddy’s girl” until her father is deported from Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to a POW camp in Germany and her mother joins the Resistance. In the aftermath of her father’s departure, Hendrika watches as freedoms formerly taken for granted are eroded with escalating brutality by men with swastika armbands who aim to exterminate those they deem “inferior” and those who do not obey. As time goes on, Hendrika absorbs her mother’s strength and faith, and learns about moral choice and forced silence. She sees her hidden Jewish “stepsister” betrayed, and her mother interrogated at gunpoint. She and her mother suffer near starvation, and they narrowly escape death on the day of liberation. But they survive it all―and through these harrowing experiences, Hendrika discovers the woman she wants to become. Author: Hendrika de Vries Publication Date: August 27, 2019 -
In the United States, more than 15 million women are parenting children on their own, either by circumstance or by choice. Too often these moms who do it all have been misrepresented and maligned. Not anymore. In We Got This, seventy-five solo mom writers tell the truth about their lives—their hopes and fears, their resilience and setbacks, their embarrassments and triumphs. Some of these writers’ names will sound familiar, like Amy Poehler, Anne Lamott, and Elizabeth Alexander, while others are about to become unforgettable. Bound together by their strength, pride, and—most of all— their dedication to their children, they broadcast a universal and empowering message: You are not alone, solo moms—and your tenacity, courage, and fierce love are worthy of celebration. Author: Marika Lindholm et. al Publication Date: September 10, 2019 -
In 1972, when she was a young, divorced, single mother, restless and idealistic, Elena Schwolsky made a decision that changed her life: leaving her eighteen-month-old son with his father, she joined hundreds of other young Americans on a work brigade in Cuba. They spent their days building cinderblock houses for workers and their nights partying and debating politics. The Cuban revolution was young, and so were they. At a moment of transition in Schwolsky’s’s life, Cuba represented hope and the power to change. Twenty years later, she is drawn back to this forbidden island, yearning to move out of grief following the death of her husband from AIDS and feeling burned out after spending ten years as a nurse on the frontlines of the epidemic. Back in Cuba, she experiences the chaotic bustle of a Havana most Americans never see―a city frozen in time yet constantly changing. She takes readers along with her through her humorous attempts to communicate in a new language and navigate this very different culture―through the leafy tranquility of the controversial AIDS Sanitorium and into the lives of the resilient, opinionated, and passionate Cubans who become her family and help her to heal. Author: Elena Schwolsky Publication Date: November 12, 2019 -
When pregnant Esther—a young, adventurous, British-born Israeli—follows her new husband, Steve, to America, she has no idea what she’s getting herself into. Even before their baby is born, Esther discovers the dark side of her charming film production manager husband, and learns that she must cope with his moodiness and domineering personality. Left alone day after day in a high-rise apartment in Queens, Esther struggles with culture shock, homesickness, and adapting her husband’s whims—like the baby goat he brings home to their eighth-floor apartment to keep as a pet. Ten years and two more children later, thirty-four-year-old Steve is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Despite aggressive treatments, he succumbs to the disease, leaving Esther to care for their three children alone, Esther at first feels lost and bewildered; as time goes on, however, she discovers that there is a freedom in her new situation—and that she has a greater inner strength than she ever before realized. Author: Esti Skloot Publication Date: August 20, 2019 -
Fascinated by a young woman’s performance of “The Lost Child” in Guanajuato’s central plaza, painfully shy expatriate Callie Quinn asks the woman for a trumpet lesson — and ends up confronting her longing to know her own lost child. When Callie became pregnant in 1960s rural Missouri over thirty years ago, her outraged father, with her mother’s acquiescence, insisted that no one know—and Callie complied. She went away, and she gave up her baby. She did it to protect the baby’s father—a black teen—from the era’s racist violence. When Pamela, the trumpeter whose music flows from her heart, enters Callie’s life, Callie begins to dream of opening her own heart. But instead she remains silent, hiding her longing and risking giving up everyone she dares to love in order to safeguard her secret. Callie tells herself she does so to protect her daughter, but ultimately, in order to speak, she must confront the deepest reasons for her silence—the ones she’s been concealing even from herself. Author: Dianne Romain Publication Date: September 24, 2019 -
Veronica thinks she’s happy. But with fight after fight, night after night, she knows that something isn’t right anymore. Then her husband busts her researching witchcraft―and her picturesque suburban life is turned upside down. As her marriage falls apart, she knows that for her own sake and for the sake of her small daughter, something has to change. The Trouble With Becoming A Witch is about what happens when a woman decides to stop living the life everyone has told her she is supposed to lead and starts living a life true to her desires. But seizing your own magic isn’t easy―and as Veronica’s marriage spirals downward, she’s forced to look deeply into who she wants to be-come. Is risking the security of life as she knows it worth becoming the witch―and woman―she knows she truly is? Author: Amy Edwards Publication Date: October 22, 2019 -
Hannah Webber fears she will never be a mother, but her prayers are finally answered when she gives birth to a son. In an era of high-stakes parenting, nurturing Sam’s intellect becomes Hannah’s life purpose. She invests body and soul into his development, much to the detriment of her marriage. She convinces herself, however, that Sam’s acceptance at age fourteen to the most prestigious of New England boarding schools overseen by an illustrious headmaster, justifies her choices. When he arrives at Dunning, Sam is glad to be out from under his mother’s close watch. And he enjoys his newfound freedom―until, late one night, he stumbles upon evidence of sexual misconduct at the school and is unable to shake the discovery. Both a coming-of-age novel and a portrait of an evolving mother-son relationship, The Nine is the story of young man who chooses to expose a corrupt world operating under its own set of rules―even if it means jeopardizing his mother’s hopes and dreams. Author: Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg Publication Date: August 20, 2019 -
Many counseling clients find comfort and meaning in their spiritual lives, in the context of religious affiliation or the diverse viewpoints of the “spiritual but not religious.” But counselors and psychotherapists often lack training for work in this territory and may be wary of opening the door. The Interplay of Psychology and Spirituality is an exploration of the subtle, fluid relationship between psychology and spirituality that offers valuable perspectives and suggestions for embracing spirituality and religion in the helping professions. Drawing on Jungian, transpersonal, and integral perspectives, Hepburn highlights personal and cultural styles, spirituality as a therapeutic resource, and the potential for psychospiritual growth. She also emphasizes the importance of focusing on metaphors, stories, and direct experience rather than beliefs. Thoughtful attention is given to potential psychospiritual problems, ethical dilemmas, and diagnostic challenges. There are also frequent opportunities for personal reflection. Unique features of the book include consideration of the potential relationship of spirituality to therapeutic themes such as attachment, trauma, subpersonalities, and somatic experience, as well as application of the concepts in the stories of nine fictional characters based on the Enneagram. Thoughtful and thought provoking, The Interplay of Psychology and Spirituality is a valuable resource for helping professionals, spiritual directors, and for general readers with a particular interest in the subject. Author: Alexandra M. Hepburn, PhD Publication Date: October 1, 2019 -
Meet Chris and Marty—a married couple working on their careers, raising their only child, and chasing big adventures. At midlife, they suddenly find themselves weighing the responsibility of parenthood against the possibility of one more grand adventure, before their aging bodies and the warming continent of Antarctica further degrade. They ultimately decide it’s time to pursue their biggest dream: Ski 570 miles from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole. With no guide or resupply. From the lush Pacific Northwest to the barren landscape of Antarctica, Chris and Marty embark on one of the hardest challenges on the planet. After three years of intense planning and training, including meticulous preparations for the care of their twelve-year-old son, they are ready. Experience a boundless white wonderland like no other on earth. Encounter life-threatening dangers lurking in the bitter cold. Feel the intensity of 220-pound sleds, relentless wind, 40-below temperatures, and mind-numbing isolation. This is not an average couples getaway. Chris and Marty go where few others have dared on the way to making history—stretching their bodies, minds, and marriage to the limit in the process. Riveting and inspiring, The Expedition is about the power of family and community, the adventurous spirit that dwells within us all, and breaking through to feel fully alive. Author: Chris Fagan Publication Date: September 3, 2019 -
Joanna and Ev have been partners for ten years―in business and in love―when one of the only women in government in the Middle East invites their firm to design a children’s museum in Riyadh. Jo sees a chance to solidify her name in the design world, and help Saudi girls along the way, in the venture. Her husband, however, has no desire to work in a vigorously policed society; he prefers to remain in his workshop, fashioning gadgets for museum displays. Jo’s sister and young protégé share his doubts, but Ev accedes to Jo’s wishes. The process of bidding on the job soon throws their home office into chaos and challenges their long-held assumptions about the value of their work―and marriage. If they get the job, will their partnership survive the strain? Author: Sheila Grinell Publication Date: September 24, 2019 -
Trevor McFarquhar lives a controlled, contrary existence. Traumatized by early childhood loss, the silence surrounding those losses, and then a sudden family relocation from the United States to France, he has no ambitions or dreams for his struggling Parisian bicycle shop or even for himself. Now in his late thirties, his romantic relationships are only casual―his friendships, few. He’s both aloof and exacting, holding everyone to his own high standards while being unforgiving of their faults. But then, in the midst of the 1995 Paris Transit Strike, Trevor himself makes an unforgivable mistake. Humbled and ashamed, his veneer cracks and, much like Scrooge, he slowly emerges from his cocoon to reconnect, to rediscover possibility, and, ultimately, to redeem himself. Author: Mary Fleming Publication Date: October 22, 2019 -
Bonnie S. Hirst is a woman of faith who has always believed that everything in life works out for the best. So, when her daughter, Lacey, is accused of a terrible crime, although Bonnie is devastated, she is also convinced that God will protect her family from harm. He always has, after all. But when her prayers are not answered and Lacey is sentenced to life in prison, Bonnie questions every aspect of her existence: her beliefs, her role as a mother, and the purpose behind the events that are tearing her family apart. As Bonnie and her family navigate the complicated labyrinth of the legal system, she struggles with the duality of presenting a façade of being okay on the outside and screaming for air on the inside. Finally, she is guided to ask for help―a concept previously foreign to her―and is rewarded with a bubble of friends who surround her and her family with love. Poignant, hopeful, and ultimately uplifting, Test of Faith is the story of one mother’s spiritual journey of awareness―and her discovery that even when your life seems to have radically veered off course, there are always blessings to be found, if you can just keep your heart open enough to receive them. Author: Bonnie S. Hirst Publication Date: September 24, 2019 -
When Janice Morgan, a divorced college professor living in a small town in Kentucky, learns that her son has been arrested for possession of a stolen firearm and drug charges, she feels like she’s living a nightmare. Dylan’s turbulent period as a college student in Cincinnati before this should have warned her, but it’s only now that she realizes how far he has drifted into substance abuse and addiction. As Dylan passes through the judicial system and eventually receives a diversion to drug court, Morgan breathes a sigh of relief—only to find that she, too, has been sentenced right along with him. In the months to follow, she leads a double life: part of it on campus, the rest embarking upon what she calls “rescue missions” to help Dylan stay in the program. But resilience, dark humor, and extreme parenting can only carry you so far. Eventually, Morgan discovers that she needs to gain a deeper understanding of the bipolar and addiction issues her son is dealing with. Will each of them be able to learn fast enough to face these complexities in their lives? Clearly, Dylan isn’t the only one who has recovery work to do. Author: Janice Morgan Publication Date: October 15, 2019 -
Nina G bills herself as “The San Francisco Bay Area’s Only Female Stuttering Comedian.” On stage, she encounters the occasional heckler, but off stage she is often confronted with people’s comments toward her stuttering; listeners completing her sentences, inquiring, “Did you forget your name?” and giving unwanted advice like “slow down and breathe” are common. (As if she never thought about slowing down and breathing in her over thirty years of stuttering!) When Nina started comedy nearly ten years ago, she was the only woman in the world of stand-up who stuttered―not a surprise, since men outnumber women four to one amongst those who stutter and comedy is a male-dominated profession. Nina’s brand of comedy reflects the experience of many people with disabilities in that the problem with disability isn’t in the person with it but in a society that isn’t always accessible or inclusive. Author: Nina G. Publication Date: August 6, 2019 -
Diane Cook’s idyllic suburban life was shattered with one phone call. As she stood five feet away from her two young sons, her husband, Jed, delivered the news: He had just been arrested. For attempted solicitation of a minor male over the internet. Her world suddenly in shambles, Diane could have fallen apart―but she knew that wasn’t an option. She was a mom; her responsibility was to her boys. So she vowed to herself that she would keep herself―and her children―together. And then, just when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In the months that followed, Diane struggled to deal with Jed’s scandal, raise her two sons, and handle her new medical condition, all as a suddenly single mother. But she quickly learned that, even in her darkest times, she was not alone: her community was with her every step of the way, always ready to swoop in to support her when she needed it most. Ultimately, So Many Angels is an uplifting story of resilience and strength―and a tribute to the many friends and strangers who helped Diane and her boys survive the greatest trial of their lives. Author: Diane Stelfox Cook Publication Date: September 3, 2019 -
Born during World War II, Marilee Eaves has long struggled to fit into the New Orleans elite―secret Mardi Gras societies that ruled the city―into which she was born. Then, as a student at Wellesley, she’s hospitalized at McLean psychiatric hospital, where she begins to realize how much of herself she’s sacrificed to blend into and be fully accepted by the exclusive and exclusionary white Uptown New Orleans culture to which she supposedly belongs. In Singing Out Loud, Eaves tells of her journey to stand on her own two feet―to find a way to be grounded and evolved in the midst of that culture. Along the way, she wrestles with bipolar disorder, alcoholism, and the effects of her bad (heartbreaking, and sometimes hilarious) choices. Raw and funny, this book offers hope and encouragement to willing to be vulnerable, address their issues, and laugh at themself in order to embrace who they truly are. Author: Marilee Eaves Publication Date: November 19, 2019 -
It's Berkeley in the 1960s, and all Martha Goldenthal wants is to do well at Berkeley High and plan for college. But her home life is a cauldron of kooky ideas, impossible demands, and explosive physical violence. Her father, Jules, is an iconoclast who hates academia and can’t control his fists. Her mother, Willa, has made a career of victimhood and expects Martha and her siblings, Hildy and Drew, to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, Jules’s classical record store, located directly across the street from the U.C. Berkeley campus, is ground zero for riots and tear gas. Martha perseveres with the help of her best friend, who offers laughter, advice about boys, and hospitality. But when Willa and Jules divorce and Jules loses his store and livelihood, Willa goes entirely off the rails. A heartless boarding school placement, eviction from the family home, and an unlikely custody case wind up putting Martha and Drew in Jules's care. Can Martha stand up to her father to do the one thing she knows she must—go to college? With its running "soundtrack" of classical recordings and rock music and its vivid scenes of Berkeley at its most turbulent, Shrug is the absorbing, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting story of one young woman’s journey toward independence. Author: Lisa Braver Moss Publication Date: August 13, 2019 -
During the German occupation of the Netherlands, 1940 to 1945, all Jews were ordered to register the religion of their grandparents. The Reichskommissar appointed the young lawyer Hans Calmeyer to adjudicate “doubtful cases.” Calmeyer used his assignment to save at least 3,700 Jews from deportation and death, dwarfing the number saved by Schindler’s famous rescue operation. Laureen Nussbaum―née Hannelore Klein―owes her life to this brave German official. In Shedding Our Stars, she tells how Calmeyer declared her mother non-Jewish and deleted her and her family from the deportation lists, saving them from death. She goes on to interweave his story with her family‘s tale of survival, as well as with that of her boyfriend and, later, husband, Rudi Nussbaum. Since in Amsterdam the Kleins were close to the Franks, Anne Frank and her family also figure in book. Going beyond the liberation of the Netherlands to follow both Calmeyer’s and the author’s story to the end of their lives, Shedding Our Stars is a story of courage in the darkest of times, and of the resilience of the human spirit. Author: Laureen Nussbaum Publication Date: October 1, 2019 -
A schoolteacher escapes an abusive marriage and finds love on a blind date. Mary Jane’s new man, sure that riding a Harley will restore her confidence, ends up following the white lines with her through fifteen years of marriage. Traveling together, they learn to be partners, both on and off the road, until Dwayne is diagnosed with cancer. After losing her husband, Mary Jane once again must learn to live on her own―but she’ll never be the same again. Author: Mary Jane Black Publication Date: October 1, 2019 -
The stories in Seven Sides of Self explore the various sides of one’s personality: the storyteller, the skeptic, the survivor, the saint (or the sinner), the scholar, the seeker, and the savior. Through the lives of central characters such as Zarce Sun De’oggo, Sister Othrosa Vella, Jarka Moosha, and Old Mims―Nancy Joie Wilkie explores themes of battling strong emotions, the lengths we might go to for self-preservation and self sacrifice, the inability to accept things different, and taking responsibility for what we create in pieces that inhabit the worlds of both sci-fi and fantasy. Original and thought provoking, these are stories that will stimulate the intellect and engage the imagination. Author: Nancy Joie Wilkie Publication Date: November 5, 2019 -
In this wry memoir, a Harvard-educated CPA with debilitating chemical intolerance digs deep in her family history to uncover the childhood trigger for her illness. Tackling themes of truth, loss, acceptance, and empowerment, Pookie Sekmet interweaves her personal story with timely guidance on the importance of avoiding toxic chemicals in cars, consumer products, and indoor environments; overcomes family trauma and mysterious chronic health struggles with determination and humor; builds an unconventional new life; and, finally, becomes a whistleblower within a corrupt and patriarchal corporate culture―and achieves righteous justice. Think Titus Andronicus, but with a slight woman in her mid-fifties with defiantly bad hair―wearing worn overalls and a home-sewn hemp jersey top―standing tall among the corpses. Our society has become polarized by leaders seeking to consolidate exploitative power through the imposition of magical thinking and untruths. Through the story of her struggles and ultimate triumph, Sekmet lays bare the underlying selfishness, heedlessness, and lies of many of our political, societal, and business structures and offers a reality-based and practical path to self-protection―and even empowerment. Author: Pookie Sekmet Publication Date: October 8, 2019