Dancing at the Shame Prom: Sharing the Stories That Kept Us Small

by Amy Ferris (Editor), Hollye Dexter (Editor)

Overview

Shame is a powerful thing. It can weigh on your heart and mind, diminish your sense of self-worth, and impact the way you live in the world. But what happens when you share that secret burden?

Amy Ferris, Hollye Dexter, and the writers they brought together are all ready to let go of shame. In Dancing at the Shame Prom, twenty-six extraordinary women—Lyena Strelkoff, Teresa Stack, Monica Holloway, Nina Burleigh, Amy Friedman, Meredith Resnick, Victoria Zackheim, and more—take the plunge and say “yes” to sharing their stories. These brave writers, journalists, musicians, artists, directors, and activists have offered up their most funny, sad, poignant, miraculous, life-changing, and jaw-dropping secrets for you to gawk at, empathize with, and learn from—in the hopes that they will inspire others to do the same. Letting go feels good!

Freeing, provocative, and audacious, Dancing at the Shame Prom is about flaunting the secrets that have made you feel small so that you can stand up straight, let the shame go, and finally—decisively—move on with your life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580054164
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	09/11/2012
Pages:	264
Sales rank:	1,182,896
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Amy Ferris is an author, editor, screenwriter and playwright. Her memoir, Marrying George Clooney: Confessions From a Midlife Crisis is Off-Broadway-bound, and will open in March 2012. She has contributed to numerous anthologies, including He Said What, The Buddha Next Door, The Drinking Diaries, and Exit Laughing. She has written everything from young adult novels (A Greater Goode), to films (Funny Valentines and Mr. Wonderful), and she co-created and co-edited the first ever "all-women's issue" of Living Buddhism magazine. She has also been both an editor and contributing writer at the magazines Urban Refugee and Milford Magazine, and contributes regularly to iPinion Syndicate, Style Substance Soul, Vibrant Nation, and The Spirited Woman.

Ferris serves on the Executive Board of Directors at Pages & Places Literary Festival in Scranton, PA, Peters Valley Arts, and the Education and Craft Center, and serves on the Advisory Board of The Women's Media Center. She is on faculty at The San Miguel de Allende Writers' Festival, where she teaches memoir writing, and is a visiting teacher at the UCLA Writers Workshop (extension). Her number one goal, desire, and dream is for ALL women to awaken to their greatness, their beauty, and their power.

Hollye Dexter is a blogger and essayist, and the author of two memoirs. Her stories have been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Answered Prayers and Character Consciousness, as well as online at Fem2pt0, The Next Family, The Shape of A Mother, and BackPage magazine. She writes regularly for iPinion Syndicate and AOL Patch News.

Dexter is a singer/songwriter with four albums out, and for the past decade has run workshops for teens in foster care through her award-winning nonprofit organization Art and Soul. In 2007 she was given the Agape Spirit award by Dr. Michael Beckwith (from The Secret) for her work with at-risk youth. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

1 Thread by Thread Lyena Strelkoff 1

2 The Cicada Killer Teresa Stack 12

3 Year of the Rat Nina Burleigh 21

4 Shadows Victoria Zackhein 29

5 Playing Dead Under the Family Tree Monica Holloway 36

6 The Men Who Stayed Too Long Amy Friedman 47

7 My Midnight Cowboy Liza Lentini 56

8 A Beautiful Portrait Tracy J. Thomas 66

9 From Exile to Redemption Julie Silver 75

10 The Jump Rope Line Marcia G. Yerman 86

11 (Mostly) Not Ashamed Rachel Kramer Bussel 95

12 Sacred Sharon Doubiaga 102

13 Mother of the Year Kristine Van Raden 105

14 I Love Me, I Love Me Not Kate Van Raden 115

15 Raising a Cowbird Jenny Rough 124

16 Elements of Shame Kedren Werner 135

17 Residual Shame Colleen Heggerty 145

18 Matching Rainbows Lawrenne Sala 154

19 The Last Secret Amy Wise 161

20 Stinkin' Shame Robyn Hatcher 169

21 Original Bra Meredith Resnick 179

22 What I Know of Silence Brooke Elise Axtell 187

23 The Hair Manifesto Marianne Schnall 197

24 Shame Never Was Elizabeth Geitz 203

A gift from my mother, our sister, to you, Mother's Best Southern Loaf Bread 212

25 In the Name of the Father Hollye Dexter 214

26 Bits & Pieces for Five Hundred Amy Ferris 224

27 1329 Lynx Trail Samantha Dunn 232