(HER)OICS

by Joanell Serra, Amy Roost

Overview

"This well-timed collection is as compelling as it is cathartic." Buzzfeed News, "18 New Books From Small Presses That You Won't Want To Put Down"

(Her)oics: Women's Lived Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic draws together the stories of 52 women across the US during the Covid-19 pandemic. The collection encompasses the perspectives of women who are: front-line responders and recovering patients; going out to work, staying home to work, and losing their jobs; living with multiple generations and living in isolation; women grieving loved ones and celebrating new love; women preparing to give birth and supporting the dying. Although differing based on location, age, race, and health, they share the unique capacity of women to bring their strength, ingenuity and love—for others and for self—to an uncertain time. The anthology is inspired by both the risks of the pandemic inherent to women and their tremendous role in the country's response.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646031658
Publisher:	Regal House Publishing
Publication date:	03/11/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	285
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Joanell Serra writes novels, plays, and creative non-fiction. Her novel The Vines We Planted was published in 2018 by Wido Publishing. A licensed therapist, Joanell is also the founder of Impactful Path Coaching and leads writing retreats and workshops. Her work and events can be found at Joanellserraauthor.com. Amy Roost is an author, journalist, documentary podcaster, and 2019 Annenberg Health Journalism Fellow. She is co-editor of Fury: Women's Lived Experiences During the Trump Era (Pact Press, 2020). Amy's writing has appeared in numerous print and digital publications including Ms. Magazine, Narratively, Talk Poverty, and Bitch Media. She is currently at work on a memoir based on "Finding Rebecca," a Peabody-nominated podcast she wrote and co-produced for Snap Judgment.

Table of Contents

Forward Joanell Serra 1

Corona, Corazón Judy Bolton-Fasman 9

Essential: A Shopping list Amy Roost 13

Neighborhood Love Story Christina Adams 17

Two Too Wet Lilies Joni Renee Whitworth 21

Phone Calls from My Son Janet Johnson 24

"Breathe Through the Pain:" Pregnancy Amid a Pandemic Kit Rosewater 28

Reflections on my Grandmother's Costume Shop while Anxiously Making Masks Melissa Hart 33

The Avocado Plant Jo Varnish 38

Sacred Story Stitching Nako Joanna Mailani Lima 45

The Boy with the Checkered Pants Amy Schnieder 48

Air Mary Powelson 53

Scrappy-An Essential Worker Reluctantly Tries to Help Mend Her City's Supply Chain Joyce R. Lombardi 63

COVID Chronicles Babs Greles 69

What Is Enough? Raluca Ioanid 74

The One that Hurts Less Kristen Marinovich Dawn Marian 78

My COVTD-19 Gratitude List Isabel Rosenthal 84

On Isolation Hannah Keziah Agustin 89

Newly Sober in the Time of the Coronavirus San Calm 94

A Shelter of One's Own Syd Shaw 101

Learning to Be Alone in Social Isolation Alissa Hirshfeld 106

Lost Woman Angel King Wilson 110

F.E.A.R. Bianca Sabogal 113

Breathe Easy Pia Wood 121

Cold Front|vNikki Kallio 124

ED-19 Camille Beredjick 130

Birthright to Breathe Melba Nicholson Sullivan, Ph.D. 135

A Day Not to Remember Susan Quigley 143

Poetry in the Time of Coronavirus Anndee Hochman 151

Bananas Ashley Espinoza 154

Relativity EK Beyer 157

Remotely Yours Lori Jakiela 163

Play With Me Maria Ostrowki 170

Azalea Victoria Livingstone 175

Tomorrow or Today Damn Marian 181

Bahala Na Ella deCastro Baron 187

COVID-19, Lupus, and Me Meghan Beaudry 193

A No Stay-at-Home Order State: living with Underlying Conditions during COVID-19 Karen Rollins 196

Pandemic Quiz Eswen Allison Hart 205

A COVID-19 Ramadan Talia Basma 208

In a Pandemic, Returning to Ritual Emma Bruce 212

Starry Night Heather Diamond 219

The Brisket on the Table Jennifer Fliss 223

Mothering While Black in COVID-19 Alicia Mosley 229

Writing, and other Uncertainties Parnaz Foroutan 234

Welcome to My World Joey Garcia 236

Crying at the Post Office, or Help! I Can't Find My Eyebrows Nina Gaby 239

The Sidewalk Ashley D.T. Gordon 244

The Money Tree Jess Barron 249

Yesterday Melissa Morris 256

Not Back To, But Forward Christine Shields Corrigan 261

The Ancestors Already Know: Prophecy and Regeneration in a Time of Pandemic Tia Oros Peters 265

Prayers for a New Reality Shizue Seigel 270

Acknowledgments Amy Roost Joanell Serra 275

Editorial Reviews

"I'm a proponent of sharing our truth. These womens' stories are raw and real. They make me want to cry, or laugh, or call them up and say this sh** happened to me too! We've got this. These women really are the heroines of the pandemic: nurses, doctors, teachers, badass moms, women having a mental health crisis, healers, grandmas... I love this." —Jennifer Pastiloff, best-selling author of On Being Human


"The homefront has always been inhabited by women, including anyone who identifies with and enters the space of "woman" — caretakers and home keepers and compassionate community builders. This collection reminds us how the heart warriors never give up or in, which is the only reason we have a chance. Where are the purple heart medals for these legions of women. Secular Blessings on every one of their stories, every single body." —Lydia Yuknavitch, poet and author of The Small Backs of Children, The Book of Joan, and other titles


"This is a remarkable, kaleidoscopic record of a catastrophe that simultaneously struck us all. While physically isolating, we need emotional closeness and these essays are consolation for any reader who ever wondered, I can't be the only one feeling this, can I?" —Leigh Stein, author of Self Care 


"...these stories give proof to what some of us have known all along: that the challenges, deep service and heart opening of motherhood can be an enlightenment intensive. Motherhood in a pandemic is a master course." —Hallie Inglehart Austen, author of The Heart of the Goddess, Art, Myth, and Meditations of the World's Sacred Feminine, and Womanspirit: A Guide to Woman's Wisdom


"(Her)oics boldly tells the stories of the pandemic from many points of view, with fifty-two women sharing their personal stories of love and loss, joy and pain, caring and resilience. This is a collection of diverse voices that, together, brings the readers to covid-19 in a powerful way. Everyone will find stories that resonate." —Dr. Leana Wen, emergency physician and public health professor, George Washington University

"This well-timed collection is as compelling as it is cathartic." —Buzzfeed News, "18 New Books From Small Presses That You Won't Want To Put Down"

"Thom Atkinson, whom author Jim DeBrosse has called 'the best author you’ve never read,' shares an acute sensitivity to the visual and physical in his work. ...He possesses a fine strong touch, taking us into some dark dreadful places, with the ghost of laughter." —Robin Winter, AEQAI

From the Publisher