A harrowing and heartfelt essay collection weaving narratives about family, gun violence, art, and the American Dream. Two weeks before her grandfather purchased a gun, Ashley Marie Farmer's grandmother tripped as she walked across their living room. It was a swift accident on an ordinary day: her chin hit the floor; her cervical spine shattered. She asked, I'm paralyzed, aren't I? Later, thinking to put her out of her misery, he kissed his sleeping wife of sixty-three years and shot her in the chest. He tried to shoot himself too, but the weapon broke apart in his hands. He was immediately arrested. This is the scene we are greeted with at the outset of Farmer's stunning collection of hybrid essays. One of its greatest features is the variety of voices, a kaleidoscopic approach that corrals in autobiography, audio transcripts, media, legal documents, internet comments, short prose pieces, and more. The result is a moving, deeply satisfying, and eye-opening story. Ashley Marie Farmer is a profound writer who is clearly here to stay, her voice a true gift to our times.
Ashley Marie Farmer is the author of a chapbook and three books, most recently the poetry collection The Women (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016). Her essays, poems, and stories can be found in places like Gay Magazine, TriQuarterly, The Progressive, Flaunt, Nerve, Gigantic, Buzzfeed, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere. Ashley has received a 2019 Best American Essays Notable Essay distinction, Ninth Letter's 2018 Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction, the Los Angeles Review's 2017 Short Fiction Award, and fellowships from Syracuse University and the Baltic Writing Residency. She lives in Salt Lake City, UT.
Title: Dear Damage (Series in Kentucky Literature)
Author: Farmer, Ashley Marie
ISBN: 9781946448903
Binding:
Publisher: Sarabande Books, Incorporated
Publication Date: 2022-04-28
Number of Pages: 200
Weight: 0.2771 kg
The New York Times, Mourning Songs for Lives, and Art, That Could Have Been Buzzfeed, 17 Short Story And Essay Collections For When You Want To Laugh, Cry, Think, Or Swoon Lyrical and poignant. -Roxane Gay on Mercy Remembering an act of violence born not out of malice, but love, Farmer's narrative is melancholic, but still full of hope. - Mourning Songs for Lives, and Art, That Could Have Been, by Kat Chow, The New York Times [G]ripping from the start...a truly unique and fascinating book. - 17 Short Story And Essay Collections For When You Want To Laugh, Cry, Think, Or Swoon, Buzzfeed Poet Farmer (The Women) parses her complicated family history to create a heart-wrenching portrait of love, family, loss, and aging in this astounding collection.....In 'Mercy,' she writes, 'while I'm skeptical of mining beauty from pain... or landing on a diamond takeaway or even claiming good can come from it, I've learned that time-freezing anguish makes for micro-moments of unexpected reverence.' Farmer exceeds her intention; the moments she depicts teem with power. This potent work introduces Farmer as a writer to watch. -Publishers Weekly starred review A slim...but striking book. -Kirkus Reviews The short, connected, associative essays in Dear Damage are by turns ecstatic, stark, poetic, deeply and necessarily sorrowful, and also reportorial....Farmer is a curator of the stories of others, stories that are also her selves: writer, family member, and chorus in a Greek tragedy too. This book announces itself as a collection of essays, but it is also autobiography, commentary, legal transcripts, revised memories, and dream scenarios, all told with the vulnerability and intimacy of a writer a few lucky readers already know as a powerful voice talking back to 'Damage.' -Andrew Tonkovich, Los Angeles Review of Books [D]azzling. -Ryan Ridge, Southwest Review In Dear Damage, Ashley Marie Farmer has given us a window into her life experience through compelling storytelling, lovely language, and welcome grace....Farmer says, in the book, 'I'm trying to build a house.' Brava, I say, for showing us all the rooms. -Good River Review Her [essays] are vivid and full of carefully observed details, and darkness is the essential backdrop to light. - In Dear Damage, Tragedy Foregrounds the Strength of Ashley Farmer's Family by Geoff Wichert, 15 bytes Dear Damage plumbs devastating loss, family, grief, gun violence, and love-all with glittering tenderness. Ashley Marie Farmer's mind is vast and complex, and her compassion stuns as she makes 'a quiet study of pain' while acknowledging that 'maybe pain has made a study of me.' These essays leave me aching and awestruck. -Gina Nutt, author of Night Rooms Dear Damage is many things at once: an expertly written collection of literary essays, the riveting story of an unfathomable act of violence, a work of breathtaking empathy, a sublime and generous account of love and grief, and the account of an enormously talented writer's self-creation. Together, they assemble into a book that is somehow all of that and more: a marvel, a reckoning, possibly a miracle. -Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun Prose in the hands of a poet, Dear Damage is 'radiant and unabridged,' a story of love and violence set within the incoherence of American values. Rarely are readers gifted with the work of a mind equally incisive as it is elegant. Ashley Marie Farmer's important Dear Damage speaks to all times from within the salience of our own particular troubled American now. -Michelle Latiolais, author of She and Widow Past reviews: Whip smart and empathetic...all of it rendered beautifully, the poet's ear and the proser's eye working together to encapsulate and expound. -Christopher Kennedy, author of Clues From the Animal Kingdom Reminiscent of Aimee Bender, Sheila Heti, and Aurelie Sheehan. -Electric Lit The conviction of Lydia Davis...and a linguistic inventiveness equal to that of Diane Williams. -The Masters Review Surreal verve and melancholy tenderness. -Gina Nutt, author of Night Room A highly original work of art. -The Collagist How do we read a book like Beside Myself? Like a gift. We study it from all sides, consider how it feels in our hands, read, consider, then read it again. -The Rumpus
