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| When the World Breaks Open
ISBN: 9781597095921
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Red Hen Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs.; Writing centers; Authors American;
A poet's story of healing herself, working with wounded veterans, and learning that silence does not equal strength, written "with self-lacerating honesty" ( Kirkus Reviews ). In this poignant and unabashed self-examination, Seema Reza uncovers the lessons she learned through motherhood and a dysfunctional and abusive marriage, and how she used her discoveries to make a meaningful difference in the world.This lyrical, non-linear narrative memoir traces Reza's journey from repressed suburban housewife to coordinator of a unique creative-expression military hospital program. Through observing her own experiences from the darkest moments of her life and investigating societal attitudes towards loss, love, motherhood, and community, Reza exposes her triumphs, weaknesses, fears, and regrets, and undermines the idea that strength requires silence."Lyrical . . . powerful . . . It is her self-reflection which empowers this memoir; her responsibility to take action for herself and not to languish as she was." -- Entropy Literature Review
Seema Reza is a poet and essayist based outside of Washington, DC, where she coordinates and facilitates a unique hospital arts program that encourages the use of the arts as a tool for narration, self-care and socialization among a military population struggling with emotional and physical injuries. An alumnus of VONA and Goddard College, she was awarded the 2015 Col John Gioia Patriot Award by USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore for her work with service members. |
