In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and writing guide, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller's life and the challenges it presents. How do we write about the relationships that have formed us? How do we describe our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean to have your writing, or living, dismissed as "navel-gazing"-or else hailed as "so brave, so raw"? And to whom, in the end, do our most intimate stories belong? Drawing on her journey from aspiring writer to acclaimed author and writing professor-via addiction and recovery, sex work and academia-Melissa Febos has created a captivating guide to the writing life, and a brilliantly unusual exploration of subjectivity, privacy, and the power of divulgence. Candid and inspiring, Body Work will empower readers and writers alike, offering ideas-and occasional notes of caution-to anyone who has ever hoped to see their true self reflecting back from the open page. -- .

For anyone who has ever felt like they don't belong, Sigh, Gone shares an irreverent, funny, and moving tale of displacement and assimilation woven together with poignant themes from beloved works of classic literature. In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Phuc Tran immigrates to America along with his family. By sheer chance they land in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a small town where the Trans struggle to assimilate into their new life. In this coming-of-age memoir told through the themes of great books such as The Metamorphosis, The Scarlet Letter, The Iliad, and more, Tran navigates the push and pull of finding and accepting himself despite the challenges of immigration, feelings of isolation, and teenage rebellion, all while attempting to meet the rigid expectations set by his immigrant parents. Appealing to fans of coming-of-age memoirs such as Fresh Off the Boat, Running with Scissors, or tales of assimilation like Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Displaced and The Refugees, Sigh, Gone explores one man's bewildering experiences of abuse, racism, and tragedy and reveals redemption and connection in books and punk rock. Against the hairspray-and-synthesizer backdrop of the '80s, he finds solace and kinship in the wisdom of classic literature, and in the subculture of punk rock, he finds affirmation and echoes of his disaffection. In his journey for self-discovery Tran ultimately finds refuge and inspiration in the art that shapes--and ultimately saves--him.

Married to Sin, a true story about hideous family secrets, redemption, and personal achievement, written by Darlene D. Collier with Meredith Coleman McGee was rated a five for relevance and selected for inclusion as a genealogical collection by the Library of Congress. Married to Sin reached back to slavery and its aftermath and resumes in the mid-twentieth century detailing decades of family dysfunction and abuse. Collier lost her mother at age three; a few years later she and her siblings were removed from their home and ordered to live in a reform school. After being freed from reform school, Collier became a teenage bride - committed to a marriage of sinful degradation. Collier is a native of Heidelberg, Mississippi and a long-time resident of Brandon. McGee lives in Jackson and is the author of James Meredith: Warrior and the America that created him, which is a biography of her famous uncle, and the author of Odyssey, a collection of her poems and other writings. ORDER NOW www.mosedpress.com (blog) www.shopheirs.com (Amazon Reading List) Amazon Kindle Store by Amazon ISBN-13: 978-1482576092 ISBN-10: 1482576090 Library of Congress control # 2012429231 174 p. c2012 c2013