Attribution:Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash
Featuring the Latest Publications, News, and Commentary for Authors and Readers
Today’s New Book:
“From Hardship to Hope: Crossing the Great Divides of age, race, wealth, equity and health”
by Judith Gwinn Adrian and Jaylin Steuber
Photo by Judith Adrian
Book Description
From Hardship to Hope: Crossing the great divides of age, race, wealth, equity, and health, a fictionalized shared autobiography, walks us into the complexities of two women’s parallel universes.
Ruby Blue, a pregnant, homeless, Black teen is temporarily housed with Zoe, a White, olding widow, as Covid-19 interrupts their lives.
After a stormy start, the women begin to build trust, sharing increasingly insightful life experiences as they stay together. Zoe knows her world through books and travel. Ruby Blue knows her world through life on the streets.
At the same time the pandemic slows the pace of life, the Black Lives Movement roils out of the unrest and the inequalities — laid bare by Covid-19 — showcasing disparities that Zoe and Ruby Blue struggle with.
Over time, they share stories and secrets about family differences in favorite foods, hair styles, skin care, and history. Then, carefully, yet often bluntly, they compassionately move to discussing tough topics, each from her own background. Race. Age. Gender. Poverty. Health. Pregnancy. Adoption. Protests. Police. Incarceration. Death. Trust. Love.
From Hardship to Hope challenges us to consider where our — often strongly held — different beliefs and assumptions about reality come from.
How do we dare to question these realities we so strongly believe?
How do we come to see that our understanding is ultimately subjective; that other people authentically experience different realities?
And then, ultimately, what do we do with this knowledge? How do we come away with hope?
All Photos by Pat McKinny-Lins
The Authors
Judith Gwinn Adrian was born in Seattle and lived there to age seven when the family moved to Wilmette, Illinois. She completed BA and MA degrees in English at Luther College and Winona State University. Her Ph.D. is in Adult Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After retiring from twenty-five years of teaching at Edgewood College, Judith became an author, working with Kira Henschel, HenschelHAUS. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband and sturdy cat, Rufus. Her son and family reside in Minneapolis. Judith is a long-time volunteer with the JustDane Circles of Support, a reentry program for individuals as they are leaving prison.
Photo by Nataraj Hauser
Jaylin Stueber is a Madison native who grew up on the eastside and is a Madison East High School alumna. Jaylin is also a PEOPLE and ITA (Information Technology Academy) Alumna; and has earned her Bachelor and Master of Social Work from UW-Madison. Currently she is the Behavioral Support and Engagement Counselor at Wingra School (students ages 5-14). Jaylin has always been passionate about working with youth and helping them stay on the right path to success, while also helping them achieve their short and long-term goals. Additionally, she works to make an impact and stay connected with the Madison community by sitting on the Police Civilian Oversight Board (PCOB) as the vice-chair, and as a PCOB executive subcommittee member.
Love this posting, and the concept of a writer’s Pen in Hand Blog, Geoff. As is obvious from the photos, Jaylin and I are different in about every human category a person can name, and yet we have been able to start the process of crossing those divides — the divides of age, race, wealth, equity and health: the things that too often separate us all. Quite a journey!
Great, Judith. I’m glad you like it. I can’t wait to read this. I hope we’ll get other HH authors to submit stuff and get the word out. Thanks.