Poetic License: A Memoir
At age forty, with two growing children and a new consulting company she’d recently founded, Gretchen Cherington, daughter of Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Richard Eberhart, faced a dilemma: Should she protect her parents’ well-crafted family myths while continuing to silence her own voice? Or was it time to challenge those myths and speak her truth—even the unbearable truth that her generous and kind father had sexually violated her?

In this powerful memoir, aided by her father’s extensive archives at Dartmouth College and interviews with some of her father’s best friends, Cherington candidly and courageously retraces her past to make sense of her father and herself. From the women’s movement of the ’60s and the back-to-the-land movement of the ’70s to Cherington’s consulting work through three decades with powerful executives to her eventual decision to speak publicly in the formative months of #MeToo, Poetic License is one woman’s story of speaking truth in a world where, too often, men still call the shots.
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Poetic License: A Memoir
At age forty, with two growing children and a new consulting company she’d recently founded, Gretchen Cherington, daughter of Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Richard Eberhart, faced a dilemma: Should she protect her parents’ well-crafted family myths while continuing to silence her own voice? Or was it time to challenge those myths and speak her truth—even the unbearable truth that her generous and kind father had sexually violated her?

In this powerful memoir, aided by her father’s extensive archives at Dartmouth College and interviews with some of her father’s best friends, Cherington candidly and courageously retraces her past to make sense of her father and herself. From the women’s movement of the ’60s and the back-to-the-land movement of the ’70s to Cherington’s consulting work through three decades with powerful executives to her eventual decision to speak publicly in the formative months of #MeToo, Poetic License is one woman’s story of speaking truth in a world where, too often, men still call the shots.
16.95 In Stock
Poetic License: A Memoir

Poetic License: A Memoir

by Gretchen Cherington
Poetic License: A Memoir

Poetic License: A Memoir

by Gretchen Cherington

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$16.95 
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Overview

At age forty, with two growing children and a new consulting company she’d recently founded, Gretchen Cherington, daughter of Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Richard Eberhart, faced a dilemma: Should she protect her parents’ well-crafted family myths while continuing to silence her own voice? Or was it time to challenge those myths and speak her truth—even the unbearable truth that her generous and kind father had sexually violated her?

In this powerful memoir, aided by her father’s extensive archives at Dartmouth College and interviews with some of her father’s best friends, Cherington candidly and courageously retraces her past to make sense of her father and herself. From the women’s movement of the ’60s and the back-to-the-land movement of the ’70s to Cherington’s consulting work through three decades with powerful executives to her eventual decision to speak publicly in the formative months of #MeToo, Poetic License is one woman’s story of speaking truth in a world where, too often, men still call the shots.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781631527111
Publisher: She Writes Press
Publication date: 08/04/2020
Pages: 288
Sales rank: 859,739
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Gretchen Eberhart Cherington grew up in a household that—thanks to her Pulitzer Prize–winning father, the poet Richard Eberhart—was populated by many of the most revered poets and writers of the twentieth century, from Robert Frost to James Dickey. She’s spent her adult life advising top executives in changing their companies and themselves. Her essays have been published in Crack The Spine, Bloodroot Literary Magazine, and Yankee Magazine, among other journals and newspapers, and her essay “Maine Roustabout” was nominated for a 2012 Pushcart Prize. Cherington is a leader in her community and has served on twenty boards. Passionate about her family and friends, she most enjoys spending time with them at home or in wild places around the world. Gretchen splits her time between Plainfield, New Hampshire, and Brooksville, Maine.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xiii

Chapter 1 No Regrets 1

Chapter 2 Poetic Space 9

Chapter 3 Cartwheels and Smoke Rings 12

Chapter 4 One Morning in Maine 19

Chapter 5 Fairy Napkins 28

Chapter 6 Summer Thespians 34

Chapter 7 10 Hilliard Place 47

Chapter 8 As Certainly as Autumn 58

Chapter 9 Electric Storms 69

Chapter 10 Puppy Love and Swiss Chocolates 81

Chapter 11 Biding My Time 97

Chapter 12 Poetic License 110

Chapter 13 Family Lexicon 116

Chapter 14 Clueless in Seattle 122

Chapter 5 Hippieville 139

Chapter 16 The Sunshine State 154

Chapter 17 Things Fall Apart 164

Chapter 18 Body, Breath, and Belief 171

Chapter 19 A Man Named Bill 183

Chapter 20 Falling for Real 190

Chapter 21 Intrusion 195

Chapter 22 Apple Buds 210

Chapter 23 Cleaning Out the Study 222

Chapter 24 Ginsberg's Gift 230

Chapter 25 No Longer Willing 237

Chapter 26 My Family of Poets 248

Epilogue 260

To My River of Gold 263

About the Author 267

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