Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
“Weekends and weekdays don’t matter to a writer. I’ve discovered through my life, if you take the day off, it takes you two days to get back to where you were. You need to keep it going in your head” (Erica Jong, “How Erica Jong, Writer, Spends Her Sundays,” The New York Times, September 24, 2022). I agree. Writing is self-fueling. A day without writing is as unsatisfying as a day without chocolate. More thoughts about writing in REFLECTIONS.
Several book readings, signings, and discussions for my new novel, One Person’s Loss, are scheduled in the upcoming weeks and months. Please stop by if you’re in or near Southeast Michigan. For more information and updates see the Events listed at the top of the NEWS page. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
WHAT: One Person’s Loss book signing (Free and open to all)
WHEN: Saturday, September 24, 2022 from 6:30 to 7:30 PM Eastern Time
WHERE: Schuler Books, Westgate Shopping Center, 2513 Jackson Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103
EVENT WEBSITE: Schuler Books Celebrates its 40th Anniversary
EVENT FACEBOOK PAGE: Schuler Books Events
WHAT: One Person’s Loss book reading and signing (Free and open to all; RSVP on website)
WHEN: Friday, October 21, 2022 from 7:30 to 9:00 PM Eastern Time
WHERE: Booksweet, Courtyard Shops, 1729 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105
EVENT WEBSITE: Local Authors Night at Booksweet: Readings from Four Authors
EVENT FACEBOOK PAGE: BookSweet Events
WHAT: One Person’s Loss book talk and signing (Free and open to all)
WHEN: Sunday, November 13, 2022, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM Eastern Time
WHERE: Jewish Community Center, 2935 Birch Hollow Drive, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108
EVENT WEBSITE: Ann Arbor Jewish Book Festival
EVENT FACEBOOK PAGE: Jewish Community Center of Greater Ann Arbor Events
My Amazon and Goodreads review of All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Rating 5) – Radiance Amid Darkness. It’s been decades since I made this claim about a book: I was so enthralled by Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See, that I did not want it to end. Given the raft of books about World War II, it’s difficult to find a unique perspective on an oft-told story about this senseless chapter in human history. Doerr has more than met the challenge by creating two indelible protagonists on opposite sides of the conflict: a blind French girl and a young German soldier. As the war blows apart ordinary lives, he draws an intricate, albeit unlikely, connection between them. Doerr is a sure-footed guide for those who cannot see, a nimble hiker beside the infirm, a mature companion for youth, and a youthful tonic for the elderly. He explores all the senses to awaken readers’ sensibilities. As a writer of historical fiction myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I’m filled with admiration for Doerr’s deft interweaving of broad research and deep imagination. Amid the darkness of war, All the Light We Cannot See finds gem-like radiance in tenderness, awe, and persistence.
“Smuggled out of the ghetto, we weren’t afraid of Germans, who couldn’t recognize a Jew. They thought we looked the way Nazi propaganda portrayed us: crooked noses, side locks, black coats. We were more afraid of our Polish neighbors turning us in.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
I’m happy to announce that 50 Give or Take has published another piece of my micro-fiction, “What’s in There?”. I dedicate this work to all older siblings, although I happen to be a younger sib.
“When you’re an adult watching a kid playing with a little toy, you just think that kid’s doing that and there’s nothing else to it. But from the kid’s perspective, that toy is playing with them. It’s interactive” (Lynda Barry, interviewed by David Marchese in “A Genius Cartoonist Believes Child’s Play Is Anything But Frivolous,” The New York Times, September 02, 2022). As a writer, as well as a developmental psychologist, I wholeheartedly concur. Creative writing is a form of play. The story is a toy and the writer must be open to playing with it. Psychologist Jean Piaget said, “Play is the work of childhood” and Mr. Rogers described play as serious work. Creative play should also be the work of adulthood.
“My mother and 5,000 others worked 12-hour shifts, night or day, seven days a week, making bullet casings. They were fed 600 calories a day. A Polish worker who went home at night sometimes smuggled in flour which my mother, risking her life, used to bake bread on the hot machinery. That extra bread was the difference between life and death.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout is due out on September 20, 2022, the same day that my new book One Person’s Loss will be published. Strout’s previous novel, Oh, William! was released on October 19, 2021, the same day as my last book, The Great Stork Derby! A recent New York Times “What to Read” profile says that the 66-year-old Strout has hit her stride and is on a roll. Ditto the 75-year-old Ann S. Epstein!
“We had little to eat. Since I was blonde with a light complexion, I could pass as a non-Jewish Pole and smuggle food to my family in the ghetto. The police often stopped me and confiscated the food I was carrying. Once, a guard tried to force me to admit I was Jewish and ordered a German Shepherd to attack me. Even when the dog bit off pieces of my flesh, I insisted I wasn’t Jewish. I still bear the scars.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“Within two days of the 1941 invasion of Poland, Germans were in my hometown, using the synagogue as a stable, destroying Jewish symbols, and demanding that Jews be identified by a Star of David. We were moved by peasant cart to the Mlawa ghetto, finding the place empty because previous inhabitants had all been transferred to Auschwitz.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
