Author: Alvin Witherspoon
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1434340007
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 142
Book Description
Alvin R. Witherspoon is the eldest of 7 kids born to Marsha and Frank Witherspoon of Nashville Tennessee. Alvin grew up under the strictest of guidelines from a couple of very strong disciplinarians. At an early age Alvin fell into parenthood as he assumed his fatherhood duties of his first son Lajon. Realizing that his actions was now going to be viewed and possibly copied by his first son, he started to look at life a little more seriously than he had ever done before. Seven years later, Reginald, his second son was born. That's when he knew there was no doubt that the things in the past that had bothered him, would be just that, in the past, and that his life had to be filled at that point with positive examples in which his two boys would have to follow. It would be many, many years before Alvin would start to pen the emotions and thoughts that were bottled up inside him. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere (although he really knows where it came from) he found the avenue from inside, which would allow him the ability to help free himself from some of the pain that had him bound for so many year. After finally coming to grips with the things that bothered him about some of the aspects of his past, the unthinkable happened. The one thing that no parent wants to deal with while they walk this earth."THE LOST OF A CHILD." Alvin writes about the many struggles that both he and his wife would encounter on a daily basis, as they fight to maintain a level of sanity that only those that has gone through a life-altering event such as this can truly understand. Alvin has always said, "As where some of my poems may be based on some of the suppressed thoughts and feelings of my life. It hasnever been my intent to hurt anyone by the poems that I write, although some of my friends and family that are very near and dear to me, may see themselves in my writings."
Poetic Memoirs of A Broken Man
Author: Alvin Witherspoon
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1434340007
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 142
Book Description
Alvin R. Witherspoon is the eldest of 7 kids born to Marsha and Frank Witherspoon of Nashville Tennessee. Alvin grew up under the strictest of guidelines from a couple of very strong disciplinarians. At an early age Alvin fell into parenthood as he assumed his fatherhood duties of his first son Lajon. Realizing that his actions was now going to be viewed and possibly copied by his first son, he started to look at life a little more seriously than he had ever done before. Seven years later, Reginald, his second son was born. That's when he knew there was no doubt that the things in the past that had bothered him, would be just that, in the past, and that his life had to be filled at that point with positive examples in which his two boys would have to follow. It would be many, many years before Alvin would start to pen the emotions and thoughts that were bottled up inside him. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere (although he really knows where it came from) he found the avenue from inside, which would allow him the ability to help free himself from some of the pain that had him bound for so many year. After finally coming to grips with the things that bothered him about some of the aspects of his past, the unthinkable happened. The one thing that no parent wants to deal with while they walk this earth."THE LOST OF A CHILD." Alvin writes about the many struggles that both he and his wife would encounter on a daily basis, as they fight to maintain a level of sanity that only those that has gone through a life-altering event such as this can truly understand. Alvin has always said, "As where some of my poems may be based on some of the suppressed thoughts and feelings of my life. It hasnever been my intent to hurt anyone by the poems that I write, although some of my friends and family that are very near and dear to me, may see themselves in my writings."
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1434340007
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 142
Book Description
Alvin R. Witherspoon is the eldest of 7 kids born to Marsha and Frank Witherspoon of Nashville Tennessee. Alvin grew up under the strictest of guidelines from a couple of very strong disciplinarians. At an early age Alvin fell into parenthood as he assumed his fatherhood duties of his first son Lajon. Realizing that his actions was now going to be viewed and possibly copied by his first son, he started to look at life a little more seriously than he had ever done before. Seven years later, Reginald, his second son was born. That's when he knew there was no doubt that the things in the past that had bothered him, would be just that, in the past, and that his life had to be filled at that point with positive examples in which his two boys would have to follow. It would be many, many years before Alvin would start to pen the emotions and thoughts that were bottled up inside him. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere (although he really knows where it came from) he found the avenue from inside, which would allow him the ability to help free himself from some of the pain that had him bound for so many year. After finally coming to grips with the things that bothered him about some of the aspects of his past, the unthinkable happened. The one thing that no parent wants to deal with while they walk this earth."THE LOST OF A CHILD." Alvin writes about the many struggles that both he and his wife would encounter on a daily basis, as they fight to maintain a level of sanity that only those that has gone through a life-altering event such as this can truly understand. Alvin has always said, "As where some of my poems may be based on some of the suppressed thoughts and feelings of my life. It hasnever been my intent to hurt anyone by the poems that I write, although some of my friends and family that are very near and dear to me, may see themselves in my writings."
The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Memoirs & Letters
Author: Walter Scott
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 15721
Book Description
The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott showcases the renowned author's diverse literary talents, including novels, short stories, poetry, memoirs, and letters. With a rich historical context and vivid storytelling, Scott's works transport readers to the romantic landscapes of Scotland and beyond. His novels, such as 'Ivanhoe' and 'Rob Roy,' are characterized by their intricate plots, memorable characters, and immersive historical details. Furthermore, Scott's poetic compositions reflect his deep love for nature and his keen observations of human emotions. Sir Walter Scott, a prominent figure in the Romantic literary movement, drew inspiration from Scottish history and folklore. His passion for antiquarianism and chivalric tales heavily influenced his writing style, making his works both entertaining and educational. Scott's dedication to preserving Scotland's cultural heritage through his literary endeavors earned him widespread acclaim and solidified his legacy as one of the greatest literary figures of his time. I highly recommend 'The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott' to readers who appreciate masterful storytelling, rich historical settings, and lyrical prose. This comprehensive collection offers a glimpse into the creative genius of a literary giant whose works continue to captivate audiences worldwide.
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 15721
Book Description
The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott showcases the renowned author's diverse literary talents, including novels, short stories, poetry, memoirs, and letters. With a rich historical context and vivid storytelling, Scott's works transport readers to the romantic landscapes of Scotland and beyond. His novels, such as 'Ivanhoe' and 'Rob Roy,' are characterized by their intricate plots, memorable characters, and immersive historical details. Furthermore, Scott's poetic compositions reflect his deep love for nature and his keen observations of human emotions. Sir Walter Scott, a prominent figure in the Romantic literary movement, drew inspiration from Scottish history and folklore. His passion for antiquarianism and chivalric tales heavily influenced his writing style, making his works both entertaining and educational. Scott's dedication to preserving Scotland's cultural heritage through his literary endeavors earned him widespread acclaim and solidified his legacy as one of the greatest literary figures of his time. I highly recommend 'The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott' to readers who appreciate masterful storytelling, rich historical settings, and lyrical prose. This comprehensive collection offers a glimpse into the creative genius of a literary giant whose works continue to captivate audiences worldwide.
The Works of Jack London: Novels, Short Stories, Poems, Plays, Memoirs & Essays
Author: Jack London
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 4763
Book Description
This carefully edited collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Jack London (1876-1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. His amazing life experience also includes being an oyster pirate, railroad hobo, gold prospector, sailor, war correspondent and much more. He wrote adventure novels & sea tales, stories of the Gold Rush, tales of the South Pacific and the San Francisco Bay area - most of which were based on or inspired by his own life experiences. Content: The Cruise of the Dazzler A Daughter of the Snows The Call of the Wild The Kempton-Wace Letters The Sea-Wolf The Game White Fang Before Adam The Iron Heel Martin Eden Burning Daylight Adventure The Scarlet Plague A Son of the Sun The Abysmal Brute The Valley of the Moon The Mutiny of the Elsinore The Star Rover The Little Lady of the Big House Jerry of the Islands Michael, Brother of Jerry Hearts of Three Son of the Wolf The God of His Fathers Children of the Frost The Faith of Men Tales of the Fish Patrol Moon-Face Love of Life Lost Face South Sea Tales When God Laughs The House of Pride & Other Tales of Hawaii Smoke Bellew The Night Born The Strength of the Strong The Turtles of Tasman The Human Drift The Red One On the Makaloa Mat Dutch Courage Uncollected Stories The Road The Cruise of the Snark John Barleycorn The People of the Abyss Theft Daughters of the Rich The Acorn-Planter A Wicked Woman The Birth Mark The First Poet Scorn of Woman Revolution and Other Essays The War of the Classes What Socialism Is What Communities Lose by the Competitive System Through The Rapids on the Way to the Klondike From Dawson to the Sea Our Adventures in Tampico With Funston's Men The Joy of Small Boat Sailing Husky, Wolf Dog of the North The Impossibility of War...
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 4763
Book Description
This carefully edited collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Jack London (1876-1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. His amazing life experience also includes being an oyster pirate, railroad hobo, gold prospector, sailor, war correspondent and much more. He wrote adventure novels & sea tales, stories of the Gold Rush, tales of the South Pacific and the San Francisco Bay area - most of which were based on or inspired by his own life experiences. Content: The Cruise of the Dazzler A Daughter of the Snows The Call of the Wild The Kempton-Wace Letters The Sea-Wolf The Game White Fang Before Adam The Iron Heel Martin Eden Burning Daylight Adventure The Scarlet Plague A Son of the Sun The Abysmal Brute The Valley of the Moon The Mutiny of the Elsinore The Star Rover The Little Lady of the Big House Jerry of the Islands Michael, Brother of Jerry Hearts of Three Son of the Wolf The God of His Fathers Children of the Frost The Faith of Men Tales of the Fish Patrol Moon-Face Love of Life Lost Face South Sea Tales When God Laughs The House of Pride & Other Tales of Hawaii Smoke Bellew The Night Born The Strength of the Strong The Turtles of Tasman The Human Drift The Red One On the Makaloa Mat Dutch Courage Uncollected Stories The Road The Cruise of the Snark John Barleycorn The People of the Abyss Theft Daughters of the Rich The Acorn-Planter A Wicked Woman The Birth Mark The First Poet Scorn of Woman Revolution and Other Essays The War of the Classes What Socialism Is What Communities Lose by the Competitive System Through The Rapids on the Way to the Klondike From Dawson to the Sea Our Adventures in Tampico With Funston's Men The Joy of Small Boat Sailing Husky, Wolf Dog of the North The Impossibility of War...
Five Men Who Broke My Heart
Author: Susan Shapiro
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0440334756
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 211
Book Description
In this honest, hilarious, fiercely intelligent memoir, journalist Susan Shapiro dares to do what every woman dreams of: track down the five men who'd broken her heart and find out what really went wrong. Between the ages of thirteen and thirty-five, Susan had plunged into love, heart-first, five times. One bad breakup was more hurtful and humiliating than the next. With insight and daring, Susan chronicles her six-month-long journey back down a road strewn with romantic regret. Although for years she'd blamed her boyfriends for their flagrant infidelity, ludicrous faults, and immature foibles, to her shock she can now suddenly pinpoint the exact moment where she herself screwed up each relationship. A successful freelance writer living in Manhattan, Susan Shapiro was in the midst of a midlife crisis she called her “no-book-no-baby summer.” Married for five years to Aaron, a workaholic TV comedy writer always on the road, she was beginning to wonder if she'd remain book- and babyless forever. Then the phone rang, and it was Brad, a college flame who'd become a Harvard scientist with a book coming out. Susan offers to interview him, and she winds up launching into all the intense, invasive questions she'd always wanted to ask him. To her surprise, he answers them! This ignites a spark that sends her on a cross-country jaunt back through her lust-littered past. While Brad is still single, she finds that Heartbreaks Number Two, Three, and Four are not. George, a theater professor, and Richard, a music biographer, are happily married with children. Tom, a handsome blond lawyer in L.A., is getting divorced. Just as it's becoming easy to worm her way back into her exes' good graces, she crashes head-on with David, a wry Canadian root canal specialist. ("It’s the equivalent of what you did to me emotionally," she tells him.) She then gut-wrenchingly relives the agony of splitting up with her first love all over again. Yet somewhere between the tantalizing what-ifs and bittersweet might-have-beens, she finds what she's been searching for all along. Part relationship manifesto, part confessional, and part valentine to the males in her life she adores, Five Men Who Broke My Heart is for anyone who has ever wondered what became of their first love. Or second, third, fourth, or fifth…
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0440334756
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 211
Book Description
In this honest, hilarious, fiercely intelligent memoir, journalist Susan Shapiro dares to do what every woman dreams of: track down the five men who'd broken her heart and find out what really went wrong. Between the ages of thirteen and thirty-five, Susan had plunged into love, heart-first, five times. One bad breakup was more hurtful and humiliating than the next. With insight and daring, Susan chronicles her six-month-long journey back down a road strewn with romantic regret. Although for years she'd blamed her boyfriends for their flagrant infidelity, ludicrous faults, and immature foibles, to her shock she can now suddenly pinpoint the exact moment where she herself screwed up each relationship. A successful freelance writer living in Manhattan, Susan Shapiro was in the midst of a midlife crisis she called her “no-book-no-baby summer.” Married for five years to Aaron, a workaholic TV comedy writer always on the road, she was beginning to wonder if she'd remain book- and babyless forever. Then the phone rang, and it was Brad, a college flame who'd become a Harvard scientist with a book coming out. Susan offers to interview him, and she winds up launching into all the intense, invasive questions she'd always wanted to ask him. To her surprise, he answers them! This ignites a spark that sends her on a cross-country jaunt back through her lust-littered past. While Brad is still single, she finds that Heartbreaks Number Two, Three, and Four are not. George, a theater professor, and Richard, a music biographer, are happily married with children. Tom, a handsome blond lawyer in L.A., is getting divorced. Just as it's becoming easy to worm her way back into her exes' good graces, she crashes head-on with David, a wry Canadian root canal specialist. ("It’s the equivalent of what you did to me emotionally," she tells him.) She then gut-wrenchingly relives the agony of splitting up with her first love all over again. Yet somewhere between the tantalizing what-ifs and bittersweet might-have-beens, she finds what she's been searching for all along. Part relationship manifesto, part confessional, and part valentine to the males in her life she adores, Five Men Who Broke My Heart is for anyone who has ever wondered what became of their first love. Or second, third, fourth, or fifth…
On Gold Mountain
Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307950395
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 466
Book Description
In 1867, Lisa See's great-great-grandfather arrived in America, where he prescribed herbal remedies to immigrant laborers who were treated little better than slaves. His son Fong See later built a mercantile empire and married a Caucasian woman, in spite of laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Lisa herself grew up playing in her family's antiques store in Los Angeles's Chinatown, listening to stories of missionaries and prostitutes, movie stars and Chinese baseball teams. With these stories and her own years of research, Lisa See chronicles the one-hundred-year-odyssey of her Chinese-American family, a history that encompasses racism, romance, secret marriages, entrepreneurial genius, and much more, as two distinctly different cultures meet in a new world.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307950395
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 466
Book Description
In 1867, Lisa See's great-great-grandfather arrived in America, where he prescribed herbal remedies to immigrant laborers who were treated little better than slaves. His son Fong See later built a mercantile empire and married a Caucasian woman, in spite of laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Lisa herself grew up playing in her family's antiques store in Los Angeles's Chinatown, listening to stories of missionaries and prostitutes, movie stars and Chinese baseball teams. With these stories and her own years of research, Lisa See chronicles the one-hundred-year-odyssey of her Chinese-American family, a history that encompasses racism, romance, secret marriages, entrepreneurial genius, and much more, as two distinctly different cultures meet in a new world.
Unpacking the Boxes
Author: Donald Hall
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780547247946
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Book Description
Former United States poet laureate Donald Hall reflects on his life, discussing his childhood in Connecticut, the works that influenced him, his education, his success and failures as a writer and father, his friendships, and other related topics.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780547247946
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Book Description
Former United States poet laureate Donald Hall reflects on his life, discussing his childhood in Connecticut, the works that influenced him, his education, his success and failures as a writer and father, his friendships, and other related topics.
Caged
Author: Cameron Conaway
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615521770
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 250
Book Description
Accomplished MMA fighter and award-winning writer Cameron Conaway presents in Caged the true story of a young man who overcomes a family background and his own inner torment by learning to channel his frustrations into the physical world of mixed martial arts fighting and the cerebral world of poetry and writing. It teaches the value of personal reflection, how life's most painful moments can lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of human nature, and just what is possible when optimism and determination combine to overcome tough odds. Caged shows how the pursuit of two seemingly disparate passions helped a struggling boy blossom into a simple man. The result is a literary and lyrical philosophical journey into the heart and mind of a modern-day warrior.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615521770
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 250
Book Description
Accomplished MMA fighter and award-winning writer Cameron Conaway presents in Caged the true story of a young man who overcomes a family background and his own inner torment by learning to channel his frustrations into the physical world of mixed martial arts fighting and the cerebral world of poetry and writing. It teaches the value of personal reflection, how life's most painful moments can lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of human nature, and just what is possible when optimism and determination combine to overcome tough odds. Caged shows how the pursuit of two seemingly disparate passions helped a struggling boy blossom into a simple man. The result is a literary and lyrical philosophical journey into the heart and mind of a modern-day warrior.
The Art of Memoir
Author: Mary Karr
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062223089
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well. For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning teaching prizes at Syracuse. (The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas.) In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate. Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062223089
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well. For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning teaching prizes at Syracuse. (The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas.) In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate. Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.
Cherry
Author: Mary Karr
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101650745
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
From Mary Karr comes this gorgeously written, often hilarious story of her tumultuous teens and sexual coming-of-age. Picking up where the bestselling The Liars' Club left off, Karr dashes down the trail of her teen years with customary sass, only to run up against the paralyzing self-doubt of a girl in bloom. Fleeing the thrills and terrors of adolescence, she clashes against authority in all its forms and hooks up with an unforgettable band of heads and bona-fide geniuses. Parts of Cherry will leave you gasping with laughter. Karr assembles a self from the smokiest beginnings, delivering a long-awaited sequel that is both "bawdy and wise" (San Francisco Chronicle).
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101650745
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
From Mary Karr comes this gorgeously written, often hilarious story of her tumultuous teens and sexual coming-of-age. Picking up where the bestselling The Liars' Club left off, Karr dashes down the trail of her teen years with customary sass, only to run up against the paralyzing self-doubt of a girl in bloom. Fleeing the thrills and terrors of adolescence, she clashes against authority in all its forms and hooks up with an unforgettable band of heads and bona-fide geniuses. Parts of Cherry will leave you gasping with laughter. Karr assembles a self from the smokiest beginnings, delivering a long-awaited sequel that is both "bawdy and wise" (San Francisco Chronicle).
Black Indian
Author: Shonda Buchanan
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814345816
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 381
Book Description
A moving memoir exploring one family’s legacy of African Americans with American Indian roots. Finalist, 2024 American Legacy Book Awards, Autobiography/Memoir Black Indian, searing and raw, is Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Alice Walker's The Color Purple meets Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony—only, this isn't fiction. Beautifully rendered and rippling with family dysfunction, secrets, deaths, alcoholism, and old resentments, Shonda Buchanan's memoir is an inspiring story that explores her family's legacy of being African Americans with American Indian roots and how they dealt with not just society's ostracization but the consequences of this dual inheritance. Buchanan was raised as a Black woman, who grew up hearing cherished stories of her multi-racial heritage, while simultaneously suffering from everything she (and the rest of her family) didn't know. Tracing the arduous migration of Mixed Bloods, or Free People of Color, from the Southeast to the Midwest, Buchanan tells the story of her Michigan tribe—a comedic yet manically depressed family of fierce women, who were everything from caretakers and cornbread makers to poets and witches, and men who were either ignored, protected, imprisoned, or maimed—and how their lives collided over love, failure, fights, and prayer despite a stacked deck of challenges, including addiction and abuse. Ultimately, Buchanan's nomadic people endured a collective identity crisis after years of constantly straddling two, then three, races. The physical, spiritual, and emotional displacement of American Indians who met and married Mixed or Black slaves and indentured servants at America's early crossroads is where this powerful journey begins. Black Indiandoesn't have answers, nor does it aim to represent every American's multi-ethnic experience. Instead, it digs as far down into this one family's history as it can go—sometimes, with a bit of discomfort. But every family has its own truth, and Buchanan's search for hers will resonate with anyone who has wondered "maybe there's more than what I'm being told."
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814345816
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 381
Book Description
A moving memoir exploring one family’s legacy of African Americans with American Indian roots. Finalist, 2024 American Legacy Book Awards, Autobiography/Memoir Black Indian, searing and raw, is Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Alice Walker's The Color Purple meets Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony—only, this isn't fiction. Beautifully rendered and rippling with family dysfunction, secrets, deaths, alcoholism, and old resentments, Shonda Buchanan's memoir is an inspiring story that explores her family's legacy of being African Americans with American Indian roots and how they dealt with not just society's ostracization but the consequences of this dual inheritance. Buchanan was raised as a Black woman, who grew up hearing cherished stories of her multi-racial heritage, while simultaneously suffering from everything she (and the rest of her family) didn't know. Tracing the arduous migration of Mixed Bloods, or Free People of Color, from the Southeast to the Midwest, Buchanan tells the story of her Michigan tribe—a comedic yet manically depressed family of fierce women, who were everything from caretakers and cornbread makers to poets and witches, and men who were either ignored, protected, imprisoned, or maimed—and how their lives collided over love, failure, fights, and prayer despite a stacked deck of challenges, including addiction and abuse. Ultimately, Buchanan's nomadic people endured a collective identity crisis after years of constantly straddling two, then three, races. The physical, spiritual, and emotional displacement of American Indians who met and married Mixed or Black slaves and indentured servants at America's early crossroads is where this powerful journey begins. Black Indiandoesn't have answers, nor does it aim to represent every American's multi-ethnic experience. Instead, it digs as far down into this one family's history as it can go—sometimes, with a bit of discomfort. But every family has its own truth, and Buchanan's search for hers will resonate with anyone who has wondered "maybe there's more than what I'm being told."