The Perpetual Motion Machine

(Paperback)

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WINNER -- 2017 RED HEN PRESS NONFICTION AWARD
SHORTLISTED --2018 AMERICAN BEST BOOK, AUTOBIOGRAPHY
SHORTLISTED -- 2019 RUBERY INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD, NONFICTION

Inspired by a brother's high school science project--a perpetual motion machine that could save the world-- The Perpetual Motion Machine is a memoir in essays that attempts to save a sibling by depicting the visceral pain that accompanies longing for some past impossibility. The collection has been a science project in its study of memory, in the calculation and plotting of the moments that make up a childhood. The preparation has been "in the field" in that it is built upon the gathering of lived experience; the evidence is photo albums, family interviews, and anecdotes from friends. The project has been one giant experiment--to see if they can all make it out alive.

Reviews

"Full of hard-won wisdom, beautifully written and deeply moving, The Perpetual Motion Machine is an exquisite chronicle of family and trauma and hope and longing, and announces Brittany Ackerman as an exciting new voice in letters." --Alan Heathcock, author of VOLT and 40

"One of the most important types of love the love between siblings has perhaps also been the least-carefully explored in contemporary literature. Count Brittany Ackerman's instantly engaging and wildly engrossing memoir, The Perpetual Motion Machine, as a headfirst dive in the right direction. Her prose is accessible and affecting, and her family story is exquisite in its luminous detail and intimacy, full of heartbreak and humor as simple as an abacus, as expansive as the starry night sky. I loved this book!" Davy Rothbart, author of My Heart is an Idiot and creator of FOUND Magazine, and contributor to This American Life

Author Bio

Brittany Ackerman is a writer from Riverdale, New York. She earned her BA in English from Indiana University and graduated from Florida Atlantic Universitys MFA program in Creative Writing. She is a Critical Studies instructor at AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts where she teaches Archetypal Psychology as well as Applied Logic and Critical Thinking. She was the Red Hen Press 2017 Nonfiction Award Winner, as well as the AWP Intro Journals Project Award Nominee in 2015. She currently lives in Los Angeles.