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"Adina Talve-Goodman was born with a congenital heart condition and survived multiple operations over the course of her childhood, including a heart transplant at age nineteen. In these seven essays, she tells the story of her chronic illness and her youthful search for love and meaning, never forgetting that her adult life is tied to the loss of another person-the donor of her transplanted heart. Whether writing about the experience of taking her old heart home from the hospital (and passing it around the Thanksgiving table), a summer camp for young transplant patients, or a memorable night on the town that turns into a moving reflection on chance and gratitude, Talve-Goodman's writing is filled with curiosity, humor, and compassion. Published posthumously, Your Hearts, Your Scars is the work of a writer wise beyond her years and a testament to hope, kindness, and the ability to recognize the beauty in everyone, whether ill or abled"--
About the author
Adina Talve-Goodman (1986–2018) was born in St. Louis with a congenital heart condition and underwent a heart transplant at age nineteen. She went on to graduate from Washington University, and perform internationally at the Academia dell’Arte in Italy and Globe Theater in London. She later become a mentor for Girls Write Now and the managing editor of celebrated literary magazine One Story, and was recognized with the Hadassah Advocacy Award and Bellevue Literary Review Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction. She was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma, caused by post-transplant immunosuppressants, as she was attending the University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and working on what would become her debut collection of essays Your Hearts, Your Scars.
Summary
Engaging, funny, and unflinching essays about coming of age as a transplant patient and living each day as a gift
Adina Talve-Goodman was born with a congenital heart condition and survived multiple operations over the course of her childhood, including a heart transplant at age nineteen. In these seven essays, she tells the story of her chronic illness and her youthful search for love and meaning, never forgetting that her adult life is tied to the loss of another person—the donor of her transplanted heart.
Whether writing about the experience of taking her old heart home from the hospital (and passing it around the Thanksgiving table), a summer camp for young transplant patients, or a memorable night on the town, Talve-Goodman’s writing is filled with curiosity, humor, and compassion. Published posthumously, Your Hearts, Your Scars is the work of a writer wise beyond her years, a moving reflection on chance and gratitude, and a testament to hope and kindness.
Foreword
Co-op availableSignificant bound galley mailing to media, booksellers, and librarians. Additional digital review copy distribution to media, booksellers, and librarians through EdelweissNational print and online media campaignsPublication in advance of American Heart Month (February 2023) and National Wear Red Day (February 3, 2023)Contributor statements available in press materialCelebratory publication launch events TBA in St. Louis, MO and New York, NYSimultaneous eBook publication and promotionPostcards availableEarly outreach and giveaways through LibraryThingPromotion through a dedicated website for the author: www.adinatalvegoodman.comPromotion through BLP’s social media channels and website: www.blpress.orgPromotional support from One Story and Bellevue Literary ReviewForeword by Jo Firestone, introduction by Sarika Talve-Goodman, and afterword by Hannah TintiEditors: Sarika Talve-Goodman and Hannah TintiAgent: Maribeth BatchaCover designer: Emily MahonMarketing and publicity efforts supported by Molly Mikolowski of A Literary Light
Additional text
“Adina Talve-Goodman walked a tightrope, for much of her thirty-one years, between life and death. Perhaps for this reason, Adina embodied life more than any person I’ve ever met. She lit up rooms with pure joy and kindness and, although this phrase is often overused, to know Adina was to love her. I’m grateful this beautiful book exists, so everyone else can know her, too. Adina was a brilliant writer, and these pages are imbued with her exuberance, her sharp humor, and both versions of her spectacular heart.” —Ann Napolitano, author of A Good Hard Look and Dear Edward
“Your Hearts, Your Scars tells of hearts broken and whole, hearts always shared—by families, by lovers, by transplant recipients and their donors. The book’s incisions expose all these beating hearts and the hearts of Adina’s reading public, who can only imagine what this visionary artist would have created next.” —Rita Charon, MD, PhD, author of Narrative Medicine and The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine
“Adina’s writing is incisive and inventive. The energy coursing through her prose is positively contagious. This is not a book to be missed!” —Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Bellevue Literary Review and author of When We Do Harm
