Things We Couldn't Live Without
I'm seeking a publisher for my finished manuscript, Things We Couldn't Live Without. Several chapters--which also function as complete stories--have been published in the following literary magazines: Ray’s Road Review ("Salvation"), SLAB ("Innocence"), Two Hawks Quarterly ("Bugs"), Under the Gum Tree ("Explosives"), and California's Emerging Writers ("Snots" under the title "Education"). One chapter, "Pretty Fingers" was published by and received honorable mention in Tulip Tree's Stories That Need to Be Told, 2022 and was a finalist for Bellingham Review’s 2022 Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction.
Synopsis: I grew up in a blue-collar Polish-American community in Chicago from the mid-1950s to early 70s. My abusive, alcoholic father was the neighborhood illegal fireworks dealer, and my glue-sniffing brother was the local drug dealer. My eccentric mother was pathologically late, even when driving me to Catholic grade school where my severe nasal allergies earned me the distinguished nickname of “Snots.” High school wasn’t much better. Shunned by my fellow honors-students, harassed by cruel greasers and even scarier nuns, I found solace by creating art. Welcome to a pre-feminist world where girls were told their career choices were limited to secretary, teacher, nurse, or nun—and only if they remained single. Things We Couldn't Live Without traces my quest to feel accepted by my peers, to become a successful “commercial artist,” and to break free from a rigid, suffocating culture as I discover what I need to keep and what I need to let go.
Synopsis: I grew up in a blue-collar Polish-American community in Chicago from the mid-1950s to early 70s. My abusive, alcoholic father was the neighborhood illegal fireworks dealer, and my glue-sniffing brother was the local drug dealer. My eccentric mother was pathologically late, even when driving me to Catholic grade school where my severe nasal allergies earned me the distinguished nickname of “Snots.” High school wasn’t much better. Shunned by my fellow honors-students, harassed by cruel greasers and even scarier nuns, I found solace by creating art. Welcome to a pre-feminist world where girls were told their career choices were limited to secretary, teacher, nurse, or nun—and only if they remained single. Things We Couldn't Live Without traces my quest to feel accepted by my peers, to become a successful “commercial artist,” and to break free from a rigid, suffocating culture as I discover what I need to keep and what I need to let go.