NWU-Boston Authors Published in 2016

Books by NWU Boston Members published in 2016

JOURNALISM/ESSAYS/MEMOIR

Rachael Evelyn Booth, Wishing on a Star – My Journey Across the Gender Divide. Chronicles the life of a girl born in the ’50s who was forced to live as a boy because of her anatomy.  When praying, puberty, and wishing on a star didn’t correct her problem, she tried to live life as a man the best she could, joining the Navy during Vietnam, getting married (twice!), and having kids.  None of this worked, leading to a failed suicide attempt and the conviction that if she didn’t do something, she wouldn’t be alive much longer. Funny with a side of anguish.

Jim Kaplan, Clearing the Bases: A Veteran Sportswriter on the National Pastime (Levellers Press) celebrates the author’s 46-year love affair with baseball. Essays, articles and profiles built from his 16 years with Sports Illustrated and 30 years of freelancing create a potpourri of subjects. Kaplan’s chapter, “Baseball and American Culture,” should be of interest even to readers who aren’t sports fans.

Marion Kenneally, One Nun’s Odyssey: A Memoir (Outskirts Press). The author’s account of her 16 years in a semi-cloistered convent of teaching nuns, what motivated her to choose the life, why she stayed despite personal struggles, and what impelled her, finally, to seek a dispensation from her vows.

Leslie Lawrence, The Death of Fred Astaire and Other Essays From a Life Outside the Lines (Excelsior Editions, Suny Press). When, in the late eighties, the author chooses to raise a child with her lesbian partner, she embraces a life full of curious adventures as well as the usual catastrophes and everyday pleasures. “Lawrence’s reach is wide, her narrative skills highly honed, and her tone is resonant with a sense of truth being told.” – Sven Birkerts.

FICTION

Jeannette de Beauvoir, Deadly Jewels (St. Martin’s). In this second in the Montreal mystery series, PR director Martine LeDuc finds out that the crown jewels were stored in Montreal during WWII… but have a secret that’s still killing people in the present. “Another riveting read from the pen of author Jeannette de Beauvoir [who] continues to demonstrate her total mastery of the mystery/suspense genre” — Midwest Book Review.

Wayne Soini, Deep Snow, High Water, and Full Heart (CreateSpace). In this Young Man Lincoln Trilogy (each novel ends with a factual review), readers can live at Abraham Lincoln’s side through his first year-and-a-half in Illinois, 1830-31, as he suffers through a hard winter, serves as his father’s helper on the family farm, goes to New Orleans, returning as a man hardened by what he experienced, and settles in New Salem, where he first finds love. Also: Nixon in Love and The Duel (based on the duel between John Cilley of Maine and William Graves of Kentucky).

POETRY

Martha Collins, Admit One: An American Scrapbook (Pittsburgh). Poems that trace the history of scientific racism from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair through the eugenics movement of the 1920s. Using documentary sources, Collins constructs a “scrapbook” of fragments, quotations, narrative passages, and lyrical riffs that reveal startling connections between the Fair, the Bronx Zoo, and ideas that culminated in anti-immigration, anti-miscegenation, and sterilization laws in 1924.

J. Kates, translator, Sergey Stratanovsky’s Muddy River: Selected Poems (Carcanet Press) is the first English-language selection of a contemporary Russian master. The book covers the full range of the poet’s verse, drawing on seven collections that represent half a century of writing. Muddy River is an Anglophone introduction to the poet’s now satirical, now psalmic, ever-searching poetics.

GUIDES/GRAPHIC

Cheryl Melody Baskin, Shift of Heart – Paths to Healing and Love (I.W.A. Publishing Services) Heart-centered, designed to increase self-love, inner peace, the art of listening to life’s “wisdom-whispers” during chaos and job; reflections, visualizations, meditations, autobiographical stories, uplifting song lyrics. Philosophy: Our own healing and opening to love vibrates to the entire planet, one “perfectly-imperfect” person at a time.

Barbara Brandt, ghostwriter, 7 Principles for Living with Authenticity – Discovering Your True Self When Going through Life Changes (STPI Press). A self-help book for workaholics and high-achievers going through a major life transition, helping them make the next chapter of their life satisfying and fulfilling.

Roger Leisner, Howard Zinn Coloring Book. NWU member converted 22 photos of the late historian, playwright, social activist and to black-and-white line drawings. It’s available from Radio Free Maine.

Ken Lizotte, The Speaker’s Edge: The Ultimate Go-To Guide for Locating and Landing Lots of Speaking Gigs (Maven House). How to position yourself as a go-to thought leader in your field of expertise, use effective tools to highlight your speaker value, including videos, speaker sheets, and speaker bureaus; seek varied speaking opportunities, eg serving on panels, hosting events, and participating in webinars.