We are always excited to celebrate the accomplishments of Girls Write Now mentors and friends, and this week we have two new book announcements!
Mentor alum and anthology committee member Dr. Nan Bauer-Maglin has announced the upcoming release of her latest book, Gray Love: Dating and New Relationships After 60. Gray Love narrates stories about the most common themes – searching for and (perhaps) finding love. Forty-five men and women between ages 60 and 94 from diverse backgrounds talk about dating, starting or ending a relationship, embracing life alone or enjoying a partnered one. The longing for connection as old age encroaches is palpable here, with more and more senior singles searching online. Those who find new partners explore issues that most relationships encounter at any age, as well as some that are unique to elder relationships. These include having had previous partners and a complicated and deep personal history; family and friends’ reactions to an older person’s dating; alternative models to marriage (such as sharing space or living apart); having more than one partner at the same time; one’s aging body, appearance, and sexuality; and the pressure of time and the specter of illness and death.
Anthology committee member Rebecca Lowry Warchut is releasing her debut YA novel Catastrophe Theory. The book grapples with themes of illness and the complications of familial love. Due to a rare brain tumor, Vera Garcia’s soccer career is suddenly sidelined at the start of her senior year. When her single mother Eliza, terrified at the thought of losing her only daughter, clings too tightly, both Vera’s identity and her freedom are in jeopardy. They make it to St. Petersburg, Florida for surgery, just as Hurricane Phoenix’s trajectory turns directly toward them. As it churns closer and closer, past and present collide in a whirlwind of love, betrayal, and illusion. Will they succumb to loss, or like the phoenix, reinvent themselves, rewrite their stories, and rise anew?