Widows’ Words: Women Write on the Experience
of Grief, the First Year, the Long Haul, and Everything in Between, an
anthology from Rutgers University Press (which I have a piece in) had its pub
date last Friday. On the weekend, the editor, Nan Bauer-Maglin, gathered
together more than half of us for a book party.
We were in
the lovely Upper West Side apartment of another contributor, and most of us
were meeting for the first time. In one case, five women had collaborated,
sharing their experiences in writing with each other, while one who was a
writer brought their experiences together—yet none of them had met face-to-face
until last weekend. One woman had come from Michigan, another from Virginia,
another from the U.K. Some brought new partners or husbands, others (like me)
brought a friend—and in true small world fashion, my friend found
I knew the
anthologist and one other contributor, and had met yet another contributor at
another book party the day before, so reading their essays filled in details
about them some of which I knew already, others I was learning for the first
time. But it was helpful to see the faces of those whose contributions I was
just reading; they can stick in my memory much better now that I can see the
face of the writer.
We will see
more of each other as we hold more book events—one contributor is also an
artist, and at the gallery where her paintings are now on exhibit, there will
be a book reading in on Thursday, May 9. I’m not reading at this one, but
probably will at a bookstore event in the fall.
It
was, as many experiences widows share, fun and bittersweet.
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It’s
Slice of Life Tuesday over at Two
Writing Teachers. Check out this encouraging and
enthusiastic writing community and their slices of life every Tuesday. And add
one of your own.
