Family Stories from the Attic: Bringing letters and archives alive through creative nonfiction, flash narratives, and poetry

by Christi Craig (Editor), Lisa Rivero (Editor)

Overview

Family Stories from the Attic is an anthology of essays, creative nonfiction, and poetry inspired by family letters, objects, and archives. Nearly two dozen contributors from the United States and Australia tell stories of immigration and migration, loss, discovery, secrets, questions, love, and the search for meaning and identity. Editors Christi Craig and Lisa Rivero bring together both experienced and new authors who will prompt writers and non-writers alike to think about their own family treasures and histories in new ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780990653080
Publisher:	Christi Craig
Publication date:	03/30/2017
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.47(d)

About the Author

Christi Craig works as a sign language interpreter by day and moonlights as a writer, teacher, and editor. She teaches online courses that focus on story structure, creativity, and flash nonfiction. She is also a volunteer instructor for the Creative Writing Class at Harwood Place Retirement Living Center in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, where she has edited four anthologies of poems, stories, and essays. Christi was an Assistant Editor at Compose Literary Journal and an Associate Editor for Noble / Gas Quarterly. She also volunteered on the novel acquisitions team during the 2016 submissions call for Forest Avenue Press. Her own stories and essays have appeared online and in print, and she received an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train's Family Matters Competition, 2010.

Lisa Rivero is a writer, book indexer, and the publisher of Hidden Timber Books in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She enjoys writing fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Some of her publications include a food and wellness column, magazine and journal articles, four non-fiction books, a middle-grade historical novel, and a blog at Psychology Today. Lisa has an master's degree in Literary Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and she taught college-level writing and creative thinking courses for many years before making the transition to full-time writing and publishing. She has been a keynote speaker and workshop presenter at both national and regional conferences, and her professional interests include creativity, literature and the humanities, and the challenges faced by writers and others in this fast-paced and often perplexing twenty-first century.

Table of Contents

Preface (Christi Craig)

Introduction (Lisa Rivero)

Wally’s World (Kristine D. Adams)

When We Feel Invisible (JoAnne Bennett)

A New Life (Aleta Chossek)

Come Home, Peter (Sally Cissna)

If She Had Lived (Gloria DiFulvio)

In a Sailor’s Footsteps (Julia Gimbel)

Exodus Redux (Myles Hopper)

Tracing My Father’s Admonition (Margaret Krell)

Extract of Household Registration (Amy Wang Manning)

The Teetotaler (Nancy Martin)

Climbing the Crooked Trails (Patricia Ann McNair)

I Had a Brother (Carolou Nelsen)

In My Office (Joanne Nelson)

Leet (Annilee Newton)

The Blue Cardboard Box (Pam Parker)

Without Words (Ramona M. Payne)

She Wrote a Good Letter (Valerie Reynolds)

Schnur Family Announcement (Jessica Schnur)

They Were Young Once, Too (Meagan Schultz)

Syl (Yvonne Stephens)

Letters on Repeat from 728 W Spruce St. (Yvonne Stephens)

Wind the Fabric Tighter (Kim Suhr)

Aunt Becker’s Secret (Julie Anne Thorndyke)

About the Editors

Editorial Reviews

“Using letters, photos, a scrapbook, more, these writers share the lovely tales of their sleuthing in the metaphorical attics of their families. Poignant, self-exploratory and tender, these stories are moving accounts of diverse historical tapestries. Especially memorable is Amy Wang Manning’s wonderful story of piecing together her family saga using an old Taiwanese household registry—it will stay with you.” ~ Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, author of the novel Sarong Party Girls, and A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family

“I love the idea that the editors of Family Stories from the Attic welcomed poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction. I enjoyed the mix, and the way it opens doors for the present day writers to apply their style and form to what they found “in the attic.” Yvonne Stephens turns her grandfather’s letter into a poem that you know he would have admired. Pam Parker blends her grandmother’s letters with bits of her own story. Others bring history to life with creative nonfiction and dynamic colors of flash. I love them all, and wish I could reel time back to write about what I found in my mother’s journal . . . maybe write it good enough to be accepted for publication in Attic. Mom would love that.” ~ Judy Bridges, founder of Redbird Studio, author of Shut Up & Write!

From the Publisher