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DEFINING RESILIENCE

In November and December, the US Postal Service ran television ads depicting delivery of packages (lovely surprises, no doubt!) to a variety of rural and urban homes – all of them clean, bright, and appealing – using “Home for the Holidays” as background music. For the holidays you can’t beat home sweet home, right? Go back there (or at the very least have packages delivered there) and you will be happy. Convincing us to look backward is a great selling tool.

It’s hard to imagine what it would feel like if that green, grass of home we played in as children had been laid waste by war or multi-year drought or some other disaster; if, for whatever reason, our childhood homes had been made uninhabitable and we had been forced to flee for our lives. Someone whose homeland is under siege or has been destroyed by war or weather becomes a refugee. There are millions of refugees all over the world who can never go home again, so they struggle to make new homes. For some of them, refugee camps become home for years or decades. The fortunate ones have been allowed to resettle in host countries like the United States.

The media loves wreckage, so we frequently see images of ruined cities and tent compounds with no running water or sanitary facilities.  It’s painful to watch and we can find no end to it, so it’s understandable when, after months and years of seeing images of desperate families running for their lives, we start to look away. We imagine we’ve seen all there is to see.

But there’s more to it than that.

There are resettled refugees, in this country and many others, who can show us the face of resilience and hope. These are not terrorists in the making, nor should they be made objects of our pity. They deserve our respect, and they can help teach us, if we’re willing to learn, how to look to the future instead of the past. They can teach us to look past our differences and see our shared humanity.

I recently listened to a refugee who had fled the genocide in Burma (Myanmar). He made it across the border into Malaysia, only to picked up for being in that country illegally. He spent a year in a Malaysian prison before being allowed to enter a refugee resettlement program, then spent another two years completing the vetting process that would allow him to enter the United States. (“My friend went to Norway,” he said. “He only had to wait six months.”) When asked about the hardships he endured, he dismissed them, saying, “I was lucky. I’m here. I’m safe. I have a good life. Many were not so lucky.” He has started his own business, and is now employing others, clearly proud of the fact he can say he isn’t taking away anyone else’s job.

Resilience personified.

There are many, many stories like this. Now, more than ever, we need to understand refugee resettlement in terms of what such resilient people can offer us, and stop letting politicians with their own agendas tell us they are a threat to our country. We need more courage and resilience in our midst – not less.

Twisted Road Publications is partnering with a new non-profit organization, Refugee Stories, Inc. to collect, transcribe and publish some of their stories. Since Twisted Road is a small press with limited resources, we are asking for help. We need resources to be able to:
– Offer small gifts to individuals who are willing to share their stories.
– Reimburse the interviewers from Refugee Stories for their time and help their organization get established.
– Cover up-front costs for editing, designing, and publishing the finished stories.

Your support will allow us to collect and publish the first volume of stories. Proceeds from the sale of books will help both Twisted Road Publications and Refugee Stories, Inc., continue this important work. 

If you can help, please click here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/vaa5e-refugee-stories

Two New Releases from Twisted Road

ECHOED IN MY BONES
A story of race, class, and the meaning of family.

When sixteen-year-old Lakisha White gives up her biracial twin daughters, she has no idea that eighteen years later she’ll be desperate for their help to save her son’s life. Echoed in My Bones is rife with loss, hidden truths, and, ultimately, redemption.

After Lakisha surrenders her newborns, Jasmine who looks black, and Tessa who looks white, are raised in neighboring New Jersey towns, but worlds apart. Jasmine scrapes through a harrowing childhood in the foster-care system while Tessa struggles with her perfectionist mother and the the pressures of being the youngest child in a high-achieving family of physicians and attorneys. Neither Jasmine nor Tessa know of each other’s existence until Lakisha’s son is diagnosed with leukemia. In order to find a compatible bone-marrow donor, Lakisha is forced to choose between keeping her traumatic history hidden from her longtime boyfriend, or searching for the daughters she abandoned, a decision that could change everything. How Lakisha, Jasmine, and Tessa come together again is the story of the mistakes that threaten to destroy us and the injuries that echo in our bones; the ones that only love can heal.
(Scheduled for release August 15. Available for pre-order now)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lisa Sturm’s short stories have been published in literary journals such as Tulane Review, Serving House Journal, Mom Egg Review, Willow Review, and Turk’s Head Review, and in an anthology entitled SISTERS BORN, SISTERS FOUND (Wordforest Press, 2015)She received the Willow Review Fiction Award and the Writer’s Relief Peter K. Hixson Wild Card/Fiction Award for selections from her debut novel, ECHOED IN MY BONES, a story inspired by her work as an inner-city psychotherapist. She has degrees from Barnard College and New York University School of Social Work, and is now in private practice in Mountainside, New Jersey. A former fitness/dance instructor, she’ll use any excuse to sneak out to a Zumba class or grab a good novel and find a shady spot beneath a leafy tree.

DREAMING THE MARSH
An Environmental Fable

Mother Nature has had enough and a day of reckoning is coming, foretold by words that mysteriously appear on the side of a shiny new building. When the reckoning arrives, in the form of a giant sinkhole that swallows the site of a planned development, a large lake, and several miles of interstate highway, the citizens of Opakulla, Florida struggle to understand what is happening. A geologist wants to study it, the developers relish its wild beauty, and the mayor plans to stop it. Only the owner of a local café, who speaks with the Ancients, understands it, and she isn’t telling.
(Scheduled for release September 10. Available for pre-order now)

About the Author: Elizabeth McCulloch was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and lived in New England, the Midwest, Canada, and the South, before putting down roots and finding her home in Gainesville, Florida, almost forty years ago. Previously a lawyer, then a teacher, she has had children of various stripes: one born, two foster, one step, and the granddaughter she is now raising with her husband. She has been writing fiction for thirty years, and her blog, The Feminist Grandma, for eight. This is her first published novel.

AWP 2018

The Association of Writers & Writing Programs Annual Conference starts next week. We’re looking forward to reconnecting with all of our writer friends. You can find us at Booth 440, plus a special event at Inkwood Books.

connie-may-fowler-author-photoOn Wednesday, March 7 at 7 pm, author Connie May Fowler will be at Inkwood Books for a reading and reception. Connie will be reading from her recent memoir, A Million Fragile Bones. Inkwood Books is located at 1809 N. Tampa Street.

Authors joining us at the booth to talk about their writing and sign their books include Tricia Booker (The Place of Peace and Crickets), James Carpenter (No Place to Pray), Connie May Fowler (A Million Fragile Bones), Pat Spears (It’s Not Like I Knew Her and Dream Chaser) and Nance Van Winckel (Ever Yrs).

 

AuthorPhoto-TriciaBookerHeadshot-CasualPatSpears2014Nance Headshot

 

 

 

 

 

Also20170607_195951 AgnesFureyAuthorPhoto joining us at the booth this year will be author Agnes Furey. Agnes will be available to discuss Wildflowers in the Median, a book she co-wrote with the man who murdered her daughter and grandson. The book is a joint effort to promote restorative Justice – an alternative view of justice based on prevention and victim/offender dialog. . Please stop by to meet Agnes and hear her remarkable story.