Just an Ordinary Woman Breathing by Julie Marie Wade
Winner, 2021 Housatonic Book Award
Finalist for the Publishing Triangle's Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
You have a history, and a body. You are a history, and a body. Your body has (is) a history, too. As a girl, Julie Marie Wade was uninterested in makeup, boy-watching, and other trappings of conventional girlhood, much to her mother's disappointment. Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe--movie stars immortalized as feminine ideals, even as they both died tragically and young--were lodestars that threw Wade's own definition of beauty into relief as she stumbled into adulthood.
Now, in Just an Ordinary Woman Breathing, Wade traces the intimate story of coming of age in one particular body (as a lesbian, an only child, a Protestant attending Catholic school). She uses the language and tenets of music, math, religion, fairy tales, poetry, and art to reckon with the many facets of embodiment, sexuality, and love in our contemporary world. The diet industry, popular culture, and her own family all provide rich material for what is ultimately a lyrical and unflinching investigation into the questions that prickle deep within the human heart.
Finalist for the Publishing Triangle's Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
You have a history, and a body. You are a history, and a body. Your body has (is) a history, too. As a girl, Julie Marie Wade was uninterested in makeup, boy-watching, and other trappings of conventional girlhood, much to her mother's disappointment. Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe--movie stars immortalized as feminine ideals, even as they both died tragically and young--were lodestars that threw Wade's own definition of beauty into relief as she stumbled into adulthood.
Now, in Just an Ordinary Woman Breathing, Wade traces the intimate story of coming of age in one particular body (as a lesbian, an only child, a Protestant attending Catholic school). She uses the language and tenets of music, math, religion, fairy tales, poetry, and art to reckon with the many facets of embodiment, sexuality, and love in our contemporary world. The diet industry, popular culture, and her own family all provide rich material for what is ultimately a lyrical and unflinching investigation into the questions that prickle deep within the human heart.
Wade is the author of two lyric nonfiction collections, Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures (Colgate UP) and Little Fires (Sarabande), which won the Lambda Literary Award. She is a professor at Florida International University's MFA program in Miami.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780814255674 |
| ISBN 10 | 0814255671 |
| Title | Just an Ordinary Woman Breathing |
| Author | Julie Marie Wade |
| Series | 21st Century Essays |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Ohio State University Press |
| Year published | 2020-02-27 |
| Number of pages | 208 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |