In the wonderful memoir Solace, Cornelia Maude Spelman says, “Everything I have always been writing in my diaries is about Time.” With compelling frankness and consistent intimacy, she explores a rich tapestry of generations of lives, considering so many facets of what makes a life difficult as well as profound—alcoholism, recovery, loss, illness and death, the raising of children, presence and absence, mixed feelings about parents and ancestors, a devotion to art, and marriage—both when it’s comfortable

and when it isn’t. I admire deeply what I have always loved about Spelman’s writing—her willingness to tell an honest story, create moods, then gaze thoughtfully into them, weighing what one does next, or figuring out how it all goes together. This book is a gem.

— Naomi Shihab Nye

ISBN: 9781956907162

Missing centers on the author’s connection to William Maxwell, legendary fiction editor at The New Yorker and old friend of Cornelia Maude Spelman’s parents. Maxwell and Spelman become acquainted in his later years; through him, she is able to see her parents as young people with potential, when previously she’d been saddened by what seemed like their mediocre, unsuccessful lives...Maxwell’s presence dominates the first chapter with warmth, affection, and charm; later, his appearance in the book is sporadic and just right: otherwise, readers might miss out on Spelman’s fine narrative voice and rich nonfiction storytelling skills.  

―Lisa Romeo, Foreward Reviews

ISBN: 9781737513445

When memory fails, what can take its place? Speculation, Brigitte Lewis suggests, other ways of knowing: myth, history, science. Imagination. The quicksilver of language itself. The result is a memoir about what it means to re-member a life. Hybrid in form and lyrical in style, Speculative Histories is driven by an authentic voice and a singular intelligence. This is a mind on the page, a story unfolding. To read it, is to fall in love with what writing can do. 

―Beth Alvarado

ISBN: 978195690706

In 1992, ten years after whaling was banned, a scientific expedition set off from Tahiti on a voyage around the Pacific to New Zealand, following the 'whale road.’ Deborah McCutchen joined the crew as a nanny for the two children of the captain and his wife. The Whale Road is a montage of snapshots, layered together in a colorful album of words. McCutchen strikes a fine balance between lyricism and musing on the one hand, and action and anecdote on the other. Humor enlivens the mundane: the nausea and cabin fever, dwindling supplies, brief island sojourns, and the work of photographing whales and collecting skin and excrement samples. Without being preachy, this book is a plea for the conservation of whales and other creatures, and a lament for human interference in nature. 

— Phillippa Jamieson, New Zealand Herald 

ISBN: 9781956907018

Memory, grief, and self-reflection mingle in debut author Garza’s account of the death of her sibling. The 52-year-old author recounts her experience with survivor’s guilt, dissociation, and spirituality, as she undertook a long journey to reconstruct her identity. Throughout, the author illustrates, in observant, poetic prose, the reverberating effects that grief can have on a life and the many ways that her family has coped with it. Garza draws on multiple outside sources, including the work of Rebecca Solnit, the words of Saint Teresa of Ávila, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead, to explore how people understand and interact with death and how they ultimately learn to accept it as a constant companion. An achingly vulnerable, elegantly worded meditation on grief and recovery. ―Kirkus Review 

ISBN: 9781737513490