"...Newbrough's thematic concept carries weight: She makes clear how intellectual and emotional lives can transcend generations and how losses can be both permanent and permeable." KIRKUS REVIEWS "This electrifying collection condenses whole lives into short tales. We feel an intimacy with the narrators through as they struggle with crime, illness, death, retirement and infidelity. What makes this collection stand out is not only the prose and pacing, the developed characters, or Newbrough's ability to capture, through the right amount of detail, the essence of place and its impact on its people, but also the plots themselves. Each reveals the dance between age and youth; between the past and the present, between what will pass away and what will pass on to new generations." Cynthia Kane (Pre-Press Reviews) "Thumbs up to ride in this womanist world-open road ahead, youth in the rear view mirror. These women want freedom-freedom for a big white dog, for the criminal, for a mother's art, for themselves, and for those they love. Any hitchhiker free enough to sit on a ghost lap, ride out Katrina, and catch a little Mardi Gras, stick out your thumb." Jo LeCoeur, author of Blue New Orleans and Medicine Woods "Engaging glimpses into the trials, transitions, and triumphs of women... convincing and compelling, building to surprising conclusions." Carolyn Merchant, author of Death of Nature
About the Author: Celeste Newbrough resides in Berkeley and was born in New Orleans. She is the author of Unspent Motion, The Archetype Strikes Back, The Zanscripts, The Norita Book, and Pagan Psalms. Her short works, poetry and essays have been widely published in literary, feminist and gay journals. Celeste identifies as "human, woman, lesbian, American, and citizen of the world." She writes about ordinary people confronted with universal experiences. "What intrigues me is how a character transforms when confronted with a crisis. In that struggle, the human spirit moves to front center. In personal history, the impact and resolution of a life crisis runs parallel to the turning point of a war or revolution in social history. To document what changed, you need to unravel what was there to begin with. " Her works have been translated into several languages. She was prominently mentioned in a late 1970s Swedish work on North American feminism by Britta Stövling, Atertagandet. In addition to her fiction, Newbrough's essays on reproductive issues have circulated among women's studies programs and national and international websites. Her essay "Bah, Bah, Black Sheep" was cited by CNN and an edited version was featured in the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women. She is currently working on publication of a novel, The Angel of Polk Street, and on the manuscript of a non-fiction book on evolutionary feminism. Her activist role in the feminist, ecofeminist, and LGBT movements has been written about in several books and archival collections. Celeste is retired from the University of California. She taught History of the Second Wave of Feminism at City College of San Francisco and at the Harvey Milk Institute. In addition to her own writing, Newbrough has indexed numerous scientific and scholarly books published by academic and institutional presses, such as The MIT Press and the Smithsonian Institution. Born in New Orleans, Celeste is the daughter of the Southern representational painter, Norita Massicot Newbrough (1910-1971), and of Joseph Samuel Newbrough (1908-2003), a marine radio officer. In addition to New Orleans and Berkeley, Newbrough has lived in Manhattan, New York, Norwich, Vermont, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Steilacoom, Washington, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a descendant of John Ballou Newbrough, author of Oahspe: A New Bible. She lives with her spouse, Ilona, their Tibetan Terrier, Sara, and their cat, Carmen.