When the World Breaks Open
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
When the World Breaks Open
By (Author) Seema Reza
Red Hen Press
Red Hen Press
5th December 2016
United States
Classifications
Physical Properties
Paperback
240
Width 127mm, Height 203mm, Spine 20mm
272g
Description
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 o
Reviews
**A NewPages Book Stand Editor's Pick: June 2016
The author writes with self-lacerating honesty. . . . Blurring boundaries, Reza exercises literary license and often writes with poetic power.
Kirkus Reviews
There are long tones of loneliness, self-discovery, and memory in Seema Rezas lyrical memoir. . . . Her prose is smooth and blurred at the same time, like tears spilled on a manuscript page. The words are powerful enough to reach past the lines and gut-punch us. Abuse, selfishness, loss, all of it is hidden within her text, whether broken up in fluid experimental stanzas or rigid static prose. Like water, When the World Breaks Open takes on many forms and shapes to articulate Rezas journey into adulthood while navigating motherhood at the same time. . . . It is her self-reflection which empowers this memoir; her responsibility to take action for herself and not to languish as she was. She asserts that 'in order to survive [your life] . . . [you] must learn to recognize [your] emotions' and the 'trauma that brought you here will not be the last one you face. Life will keep hitting you.' Reza seems determined to hit back.
Entropy Literature Review
Author Bio
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.
