The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok
The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok New York Times and Globe and Mail best-selling book The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok is a breathtaking literary memoir about the complex meaning of love, truth, and the capacity for forgiveness among family. Through stunning prose and original art created by the author in tandem with the text, The Memory Palace explores the connections between mother and daughter that cannot be broken no matter how...
Heron Island by Roberta Harold
Heron Island by Roberta Harold AROHO’s Ghost Ranch retreats have been the literary equivalent of blood transfusions for me, full of inspiration, challenge, learning, and fellowship. Something strange and magical happens when the wheels of my car rattle over the cattle-guard, an energizing and calming suffusion as bracing and clear as the high desert air. I’m inspired by the generosity of spirit that drove...
Silent Embrace by Ann Angel
Silent Embrace by Ann Angel AROHO helped me see that I am not alone in valuing the stories of women. We have earned a place in the world with our art, our voices, and the way we face life with unflinching honesty and healing perspectives. Working with all the women at the AROHO Retreat rekindled my passion for telling these stories. Since my last retreat I continue to write biographies, but I have also begun working with...
Blood Desert by Renny Golden
Blood Desert, by Renny Golden Golden’s poetry book Blood Desert: Witnesses 1820-1880, published by the University of New Mexico Press, won the Women’s Writing the West (WILLA Literary Award), was named a Southwest Notable Book of the Year 2012, and was a finalist for the New Mexico Book Award 2012. The time at AROHO gave me a renewed sense of trust in my vision and direction for my writing. Being amongst so many vibrant...
Rio de Sangre by Kate Gale
In a story conceived by Los Angeles author and librettist Kate Gale and featuring a vibrant score by Emmy-award winning composer Don Davis, Rio de Sangre depicts love in the midst of war and political turmoil in the face of idealism. The opera has been performed at the New York City Opera and Walt Disney Concert Hall. In our writing lives, there are many people who want something from us. Kids who want sandwiches, husbands who want...
Cut Away by Cathy Kirkwood
Edmund White Award Finalist and Pushcart Nominee, Cut Away by Cathy Kirkwood expertly entwines the lives of three characters struggling to understand the meaning of identity and its seeming mutability. First there was the pure desert silence in which the quietest voice spoke in dry, still air–one which took me over completely in the coming years and became the driving force of the novel. Then there was the surge of women,...
More of this World or Maybe Another by Barb Johnson
More of this World or Maybe Another by 5th Gift of Freedom Winner, Barb Johnson, is a collection of short stories in which the lives of four unlikely friends intersect on the backstreets of New Orleans. Living amid poverty and violence, these fragile heroes of the American underclass redefine our notions of family, redemption, and love. Described by Dorothy Allison as “Stunning stories…the kind that reveal, enlarge, and...
Without a Map by Meredith Hall
Listed as one of ten “truly addictive stories” by O Magazine, 2007 BookSense “Pick of the Year,” 2007 Elle Magazine Reader’s Pick, Without a Map by 3rd Gift of Freedom Winner Meredith Hall has been called “A haunting meditation on love, loss, and family,” (Caroline Levitt, People, 4 stars), and “An unusually elegant memoir that feels as though it’s been carved straight out of...
The Man with my Face by Jennifer Tseng
The Man with my Face, by 1st Gift of Freedom Winner, Jennifer Tseng “This debut collection of poetry by Jennifer Tseng traces the immigrant’s journey, one filled with distant families, sea crossings, sweet fruits, and buried violins. Whether remembering a father’s ‘unseen clock, his well-wound mystery’ or poetically re-imagining the ‘autobiography of an immigrant,’ the speaker in these poems...