My essay “Revisions” will be published in Issue 45 of the Bellevue Literary Review. I originally worked on this essay in the Tin House Summer Workshop in 2022 as well as a Vermont Studio Center residency in Spring 2023. Danielle Ofri and Scott Oglesby co-edited the version of the essay set for publication.
In conjunction with the issue launch, I am part of an online reading scheduled for Thursday, October 5th at 7PM ET. The event is free on YouTube and a reminder/registration page appears here:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/bellevueliteraryreview/1007532?
I will read a brief excerpt from the essay followed by a short interview with BLR editor Ronna Wineberg.
“Revsions” is from my memoir-in-progress, RATE OF CHANGE. The memoir engages with my experience as a full- time caregiver in a marriage, and recounts my journey navigating my partner’s progressive disability and death from a rare neurological disease at an early age.
It is intended to help current caregivers feel less isolated by engaging with the many unsayable aspects of providing for their partners and themselves, including infidelity, addiction and co-dependency, suicidal ideation, the right-to-die and medical aid-in-dying, and perhaps most importantly, the unclear path back to life when the caregiving ends, including the emergence of new love. In particular, the manuscript focuses on the heightened complexities of these experiences in the ongoing reality and wake of a global pandemic.
For millions of caregivers, anxiety, depression, and burnout are common side effects of living in what storyteller and hospice-contrarian Stephen Jenkinson calls the “death-phobic and grief illiterate” context of globalized capitalism. RATE OF CHANGE aspires to be a lifeline to those dutifully love-bound to the dying of another.
For inquiries about the memoir, please contact me directly.
Update: The recording of the event is now available on YouTube.