Full Description
Even if you haven't been hurt by domestic violence, someone you know has and wishes they could tell you about it. Perhaps you are a therapist, teacher, academic, or social worker who wants to help those who are suffering. Or maybe you are in an abusive relationship and need to know that you are not alone.
The poems, memoirs, and creative nonfiction pieces collected here tell of real incidents of abuse, as well as of those who left destructive and unsalvageable relationships. The beauty and truth of the language, as well as the honesty and courage, set this anthology apart from self-help manuals and academic treatises on domestic violence. This book offers a path forward to healing, health and fulfillment, using the power of art to give voice where voice has been stifled, forgotten, overlooked or denied.
Contents
Table of Contents
Preface by Judith Skillman and Linera Lucas
Introduction by Judith Skillman and Linera Lucas
I—Home
Heidi Seaborn
Weather
Drafting a Flight Plan
Jennifer Jenkins
Hit Me
Susan April
The Ballet
Howie Good
Anger Is an Arrow
Stick Figure Family
The Secret Goldfish
Emma Brousseau
What's True of the Garden Pea
Wren Tuatha
Fissure
Chelsea Clammer
Balcony, 3 a.m.
Nina Fosati
Her Father's Daughter
RK Taylor
holy / days
Lynn Magill
You Smiled
Michael
Cynthia Steele
Words "Too Dark" for the Father's Day Edition
Kurt Olsson
Packs
Drowned
The Best of a Bad Year
J. Flynn Doncaster
Ever Closer
II—Trauma
Lindsay Erdman
Abroad
LeeAnn Olivier
Kintsugi
Aimee Parkison
Girl in Rape Kit
Victoria Elizabeth Ruwi
A Slice of Summer
Mary Ellen Talley
Wine Song
How to Survive Abuse
A Steady Whip
Ogu Chukwuebuka Kizito
Voices from the Streets
Carolyne Wright
Mandamientos: Lover to Beloved
I Forgive
Paul Rousseau
Kitchen Table
Jonaki
It Wasn't the First Time He Hit Me
Darlene Goetzman
Reading the Lines
Anne Spollen
From Where I Live Now
Izzy Wilson
Why Are They Fighting?
Christina Hoag
When His Words Became a Drug
Amelia Goldman
The Fixer
Sally Quon
Beginnings
Gayelene Carbis
His face Right in My Face
The Weight of Words in Our Hands Like Water
This is What Happened
Kelsey Brown
A Game of Cat and Mouse
Polly Buckingham
Excerpt—The Queen in the Mirror
III—PTSD
Tina Barry
Pine
Roxanne James
Counting Raindrops
Lillo
Pearls Before Swine
Sally Showalter
Stone Lies
H.M. Clark
Fire Line
Danielle Hark
I Keep Secrets Stashed in a Lock Box
Abandoned Doll
Cold Sheets
Secrets Stashed in Tiny Orange Pill Bottles
Lexy Courneya
Memoir Excerpts
Memoir Excerpts II
Joyce Hayden
The Out of Body Girl
Marjorie Maddox
Eiffel Tower
On a Hot Summer Night for Revenge
The Truth of Lies, The Lies of Truth
Sharp.
IV—In Retrospect
Susan Landgraf
The Woman Who Held Her Tongue
Carol Smallwood
House of Cards
A Picnic
Rosanne Ehrlich
Two-Year Slide in Brooklyn Heights
Linera Lucas
Saddle Up
Signal
Lindsey Heatherly
Weaving Rope
Robert Kingett
My First Online Love
Alice Ting
Tug of War
Judith Skillman
Trellis
Years Later
Jeff Burd
Lost in Transmission
Mary Zelinka
Last Supper
Sailor Holladay
Red Flag
Alison Stone
Heretic
Tina Kelley
Pushed Out of the Chevy, She Adjusts Her Miniskirt
Meggie Royer
Twenty Years of Rain
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of Previously Published Work
Notes
About the Contributors
Index
