"Writers On The Edge" offers a range of essays, memoirs and poetry written by major contemporary authors who bring fresh insight into the dark world of addiction, from drugs and alcohol, to sex, gambling and food. Editors Diana M. Raab and James Brown have assembled an array of talented and courageous writers who share their stories with heartbreaking honesty as they share their obsessions as well as the awe-inspiring power of hope and redemption.
"Open to any piece in this collection, and the scalding, unflinching, overwhelming truths within will shine light on places most people never look. Anyone who reads this book, be they users or used, will put it down changed. And when they raise their eyes from the very last page, the world they see may be redeemed, as well." --Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight
CONTRIBUTORS: Frederick & Steven Barthelme, Kera Bolonik, Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, Maud Casey, Anna David, Denise Duhamel, B.H. Fairchild, Ruth Fowler, David Huddle Perie Longo, Gregory Orr, Victoria Patterson, Molly Peacock, Scott Russell Sanders, Stephen Jay Schwartz, Linda Gray Sexton, Sue William Silverman, Chase Twichell, and Rachel Yoder
About the Editors
Diana M. Raab, an award-winning memoirist and poet, is author of six books including "Healing With Words" and "Regina's Closet." She's an advocate of the healing power of writing and teaches nation-wide workshops and in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.
James Brown, a recovering alcoholic and addict, is the author of the memoirs, " The Los Angeles Diaries" and "This River." He is Professor of English in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at California State University, San Bernardino.
From the Reflections of America Series
Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com
SEL006000 Self-Help: Substance Abuse & Addictions - Alcoholism
SEL003000 Self-Help: Adult Children of Alcoholics
PSY038000 Psychology: Psychopathology - Addiction

How do you find hope and even joy in a world that is racist, sexist and facing climate crisis? How do you prepare your children for it, but also fill them with all the boundlessness and eccentricity that they deserve and that life has to offer?

In Brown Baby, Nikesh Shukla explores themes of racism, feminism, parenting and our shifting ideas of home. This memoir, by turns heartwrenching, hilariously funny and intensely relatable, is dedicated to the author’s two young daughters, and serves as an act of remembrance to the grandmother they never had a chance to meet. Through love, grief, food and fatherhood, Shukla shows how it’s possible to believe in hope.

"Think about it. In order to be grandmothers we once had to be mothers. After giving birth, we, as the mothers, were responsible for our baby's/child's well being. As grandmothers, on the other hand, we have choices. Our roles are open for interpretation and conscious choices. When I became a grandmother, and even when my daughters-in-law were pregnant, I made a conscious decision to be an involved grandmother, one of the caretakers or a Granny-Nanny.

I was sure that helping out and taking care of a baby would be easy like getting back on a bicycle after a twenty-year lapse. Oh, how wrong I was. There are new rules, new products, new findings and plenty of taboos. How did my three children ever survive their hazardous childhoods?"

Parenting rules have gone through some serious revisions since author Lois Young-Tulin raised her kids. In her helpful guide, "The Granny Nanny," Young-Tulin offers a unique opportunity for today's grandmas to hone their skills and learn the twenty principles for successful grandmothering in a modern world.

'Brown Baby is a beautifully intimate and soul-searching memoir. It speaks to the heart and the mind and bears witness to our turbulent times.' - Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other How do you find hope and even joy in a world that is prejudiced, sexist and facing climate crisis? How do you prepare your children for it, but also fill them with all the boundlessness and eccentricity that they deserve and that life has to offer? In Brown Baby, Nikesh Shukla, author of the bestselling The Good Immigrant, explores themes of sexism, feminism, parenting and our shifting ideas of home. This memoir, by turns heartwrenching, hilariously funny and intensely relatable, is dedicated to the author's two young daughters, and serves as an act of remembrance to the grandmother they never had a chance to meet. Through love, grief, food and fatherhood, Shukla shows how it's possible to believe in hope.

Like a photo shoot, pictures flashed in Anthony's head as he reflected on the first time he heard the horrifying clank of the barred door that was now staring at his back, he vividly recalled, his face smashed against the dusty police car, bright red and blue Lights blindly flashing in his eyes. Everything was a blur! His heart beating so fast and pounding so hard he could hardly hear the cop as he repeated his words... "Do you understand your rights!" A preacher's son on the way to a place deemed worse than hell! Just a teenaged boy when he was facing those bars, now a man 7 years later who has made a promise to himself to rectify his wrongs. Read this captivating story about a young man's journey into manhood down a twisted road through tragedy and triumph.

Do you long for a closer bond with your son? Do you want the kind of relationship that will honor God and be a blessing to both of you for the rest of your lives?

In Fathers and Sons Angus Buchan explains how fathers can foster a rewarding and God-honoring relationship with their sons.

Through topics like humility, love, appreciation, grace and respect Angus inspires men to be the godly fathers God has ordained them to be and reminds them that it is never too early or too late to nurture the special and blessed relationship between a father and his son.

Get to know Grandma like never before with this enlightening keepsake journal that includes dozens of questions to get the storytelling started and space to record the conversations for future generations. Preserve your memories and share your life story with your family in this lovely keepsake book. With dozens of questions prompting you to recall and record moments big and small, this interactive grandmother's journal will help you capture all of life's most memorable highs and lows. Whether you record the remembrances of your life yourself or children and grandchildren use this book to encourage a conversation to learn about Grandma's life, The Story of Grandma offers a beautiful way to create a collaborative memory book and share the stories of her life with future generations.

We parents are plagued with doubt. In an ever-changing world our children must adapt constantly to the demands of the modern world - and we as parents do too. From social media pressures, generational expectations, and with a mental health crisis sweeping the younger generation, parenting can be a challenging and uncertain journey through uncharted territory. Dr Shefali, a therapist who has worked with thousands of parents - and is a parent herself - is here to provide a helping hand. Empowering parents with her revolutionary conscious parenting method, The Parenting Map will lead you on an exciting path of growth, helping you to disrupt unhealthy belief patterns and overcome deeply ingrained fears so you can find an authentic connection between yourself and your children. Following a step-by-step plan to navigate everyday challenges, Dr Shefali will teach you how to shift your focus to a new consciousness, transform your mindset, and improve your communication within the parenting dynamic. Your entire relationship with your children - and with yourself - will change, resulting in deeper bonds and healthy, thriving, well-adjusted children. Featuring hands-on practical advice which question and empower you, as well as case studies to help you day to day, The Parenting Map is the ultimate manual for the modern-day parent. 'In this essential work, Dr. Shefali shares the wisdom of her generous heart and deep insights gleaned from decades of clinical experience. The result is an easy-to-follow, illuminating, and eminently practical guide to making conscious parenting an every-day reality for our children and ourselves.' GABOR MATE, MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Myth of Normal 'Break free from the destructive patterns of your past. For parents with kids of all ages, The Parenting Map is the solution-oriented guide you have been looking for to raise independent, authentic, and happy children.' GABBY BERNSTEIN, New York Times bestselling author of The Universe Has Your Back 'The Parenting Map is a must-have for all stages of the parenting journey. It offers insight on self-aware parenting, which teaches us that when we heal ourselves, we become our children's best possible caretakers and champions. We can all use these gentle tools to be the engaged, empathetic parents our children need.' KATHERINE SCHWARZENEGGER PRATT, mother, New York Times bestselling author, and advocate 'Raising children in our crazy world has never been harder. Dr. Shefali's classic The Conscious Parent was a game changer that introduced me to the idea of intentional and self-aware parenting. And with The Parenting Map, she has done what seemed impossible, she's given us the playbook!' EVA LONGORIA BASTON, actor, director, and mom

This seemingly simple but truly complex question" True or false: "My mother was a good woman." This item has appeared in one form or another on countless psychological inventories over the years. The culturally-prescribed answer is, of course, "True." Even the people most abused by their mothers tend to rise to defend "Mom." The rationale varies: "She was basically good"; "She was never cut out to have children"; "She simply had no idea how to be there for me"; "Perhaps if she hadn't had me..."; "Maybe it was I who turned her into a bad mother?" As early as 1954 in his work with abused children, psychoanalyst Ronald Fairbairn observed that a child acknowledging to herself or anyone else that she had a bad mother or that her mother was a bad woman was tantamount to admitting that the child was, by association, a bad person --and so it becomes an act of self-preservation to hold that one's mopther is good, never mind all evidence to the contrary. In Horrible Mothers, pshychotherapist Alice Thie Vieira takes us into the world of individuals who have endured devastating damage at the hands of society's most sacrosanst icon: the Mother. Vieira does so with four chief aims: 1. to label abuse so as to be able to acknowledge it; 2. to recognize that the sanctification of motherhood is a burden that society has foisted upon them; 3. to help mothers understand how their mothering may have hurt their children; 4. to help victims of horrible mothering grasp the unfairness of what was done to them, to comprehend how it affected their lives, and acknowledge what they have endured so as to break free from unhealthy attachments to their inadequate mothers, and thus move forward and better realize their potentiality.

Fathers, Prisons, and Family Reentry: Presencing as a Framework and Method asks scholars, policy makers, advocates, and practitioners to rethink family reentry in a new light, to seek to understand both the urgent and intolerable loss as well as the real and present potential of families. There are almost one million parents of minor-aged children currently serving time in U.S. prisons-most of them fathers. Based on post-phenomenological analyses, William Muth offers a new framework for conceptualizing family reentry as a present phenomenon. It seeks to reveal the intense ways incarcerated fathers and their families live their present-absence, and draws on these intensities to define a new role for researchers and practitioners: nurturing the potential of families in the here and now. The current situation is intolerable. A credible family reentry approach is urgently needed. This book is an attempt to address these families as they potentially are, and might become, if we would be willing to "meet them half-way," in the words of the poet Alice Fulton.