All the stories read on this night are true. There will be show and tell. There may also be singing.
Be there. Kavarna, Oakhurst, Monday, 8pm.
About Me
- jessica handler
- Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- My first book, "Invisible Sisters: A Memoir" has been named one of "Twenty Five Books All Georgians Should Read!" I would love to visit your bookclub, either in person (in the South) or through the magic of electronics. My writing has received a "Special Mention" for a 2008 Pushcart Prize. I have been honored with a residency at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Bethany, CT., a Fellowship at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts in Rabun Gap, Georgia, and the 2009 Peter Taylor Nonfiction Fellowship at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. Locally, I teach workshops in creative writing, memoir, and feature journalism, and am a member of the faculty of an art college, where I teach screenwriting. I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte (N.C.) and a B.S. in Communication from Emerson College, in Boston. I used to work in television. I did not push the broom behind the elephant. Usually, I served as mahout - I drove the (allegorical) elephant. If he was SAG or AFTRA. Rock stars do not scare me.
3 comments:
Hi Jessica,
I heard you speak yesterday at Atlanta Writer's and went home with your book, Invisible Sisters.
I finished it by 1 a.m. this morning. . . unlike you, I am NOT a night owl. Your memoir was preciously worth every minute of my being entirely out-of-sync today.
Your writing breathes both in and out throughout the book,, a rarity---especially in memoir. Too often the beginning of memoirs are a tight breath in, held in to the point of pain throughout the body of the text, followed by a forced exhalation and a photo of the author in the last pages leaving the reader feeling self-suffocated and dismissed from the presence of the author.
Your book was as human as the ongoing presence of your sisters. Both an attempt to understand and bridge the gaps all around our multi-dimensional existences. Thank you as a reader who adores great writing such as yours. Thank you as the oldest sister of a brother long since dead from a genetic disease that claimed him in childhood. Although his early and profound retardation resulted in him being put in an institution and thus prevented him from being a presence in my life, his absence is the hole that my family of origin struggles with 45 years after his death.
I am giving my copy of Invisible Sisters to one of my sisters, one I have not spoken to in five years. That is the highest recommendation I can give any book.
Blessings,
Terre
Hi, Terre. I am speechless - thank you so much, and I'm so happy to have provided what I hope will be bridge between you and your sister.
I look forward to seeing you around the Atlanta writing community!
Looking forward to more true stories in December. That was a good time last night !
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