Everbloom: Stories of Deeply Rooted and Transformed Lives (Paraclete Press, 2017).
Available from:
and your favourite local bookstore.
Summary
Everbloom is a collection of essays, stories, and poetry by the women of Redbud Writers Guild. These are stories of pain and beauty, loss and growth, that encourage readers to embrace their own stories with honesty, faith, and imagination. It’s a privilege for my essay to be included on Finding My Activist Voice.
Stories form the core of Everbloom— 41 stories of being deeply rooted in faith and living transformed lives, as the subtitle says. Some of these stories take shape as poetry, others as prose, but each one is personal and invites response. To assist readers in the journey of finding their own voices, each entry in this collection also includes a prayer and a writing prompt.
Endorsements
Once I began reading these stories I couldn’t stop. Each writer is a strong woman who has learned much from life and God. Gritty, funny, painful, affirming. No punches are pulled, but grace abounds.
– Luci Shaw, poet, author of Thumbprint in the Clay
Readers will find gold within these pages. Excellent writing often springs from deep sorrow that has softened hearts, widened vision, and presses its bearers into the Man of Sorrows.
– Dee Brestin, author of The Friendships of Women
We read to see elements of our own hearts, experiences and stories reflected back to us in the words of others. This collection is just that: stories that help us feel seen, known, and understood. Honestly and beautifully told, this book will keep you in good company along your own journey.
– Shauna Niequist, author of Present Over Perfect
Everbloom contains a smorgasbord of personal stories and reflections that put the strong writing of women and the reality of women’s lives on display. I suspect every reader will find themselves in one or more of these chapters. But beyond giving readers a lot to ponder, these writers are also offering readers with a story to tell the kind of support they’ve been offering each other. Each chapter contains a “you can do it too” Writing Prompt to inspire the reluctant writer to get started.
– Carolyn Custis James, author of Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women and
Maelstrom: Manhood Swept into the Currents of a Changing World
April Yamasaki 