Community Invited to Premiere of Cheryl Unruh’s New Memoir and Celebration of Emporia’s Literary Community
Emporia, KS—Flyover People essayist Cheryl Unruh, takes the stage for a literary
celebration, complete with reading and book signing as Meadowlark Press
releases Unruh’s new memoir, Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small
Kansas Town, at Lyon County History Center on Saturday, November 13 at 1:00pm.
An array of regional books
will be available for purchase, including other titles by Unruh, as well as
books published by Meadowlark Press.
Unruh’s memoir
details a small-town childhood as the daughter of a carpenter-father, who also
happens to be the town cemetery caretaker. As Cheryl grows, so does her
comprehension of her father’s particular maladies, a skin-condition that is not
discussed by the family, as well as his struggles with depression. Presented in
short vignettes, Gravedigger’s Daughter introduces Unruh’s father from a
child’s eye view, and then via observations and interactions that take us
through Unruh’s adolescence to adulthood. Divided into three parts, the book
covers Unruh’s childhood in Pawnee Rock, her father’s middle-age years when she
lived away, and his later years.
Unruh grew up in the town
of Pawnee Rock in central Kansas, population 400, in the 1960s and 70s. “The stories, or
vignettes, are poem-shaped, but each captures a moment in time. I see each one
as a snapshot,” Unruh says. “While I will never be able to relate the entirety
and complexity of a life, I hope that some of my dad’s weird and wonderful
personality shines through.”
From Laura Moriarty, author
of The Chaperone: “With Gravedigger’s Daughter,
Cheryl Unruh has created something so fresh and inviting—a memoir in lean
vignettes. Each is moving on its own, and also part of a compelling portrait of
a childhood in an isolated town with a dwindling population. Unruh’s details
are too specific for sentimentalism, but places and people are observed with a
loving gaze that also feels wise and honest. Her father, especially, emerges as
both haunted and quietly heroic. What a beautiful book.”
Fans of Cheryl’s two previous
collections of vivid Kansas essays, Flyover
People (2011 KS Notable Book) and Waiting
on the Sky (2015 KS Notable Book), and Walking on Water, her
collection of poetry, will delight in this memoir. Unruh hopes that the book
will inspire readers to write their own stories “whether they write for their
own pleasure or choose to share their stories with family and friends or
perhaps even go on to publish their writing.” Unruh will be scheduling a series
of memoir writing workshops starting in the spring of 2022.
Gravedigger’s Daughter is available for order through meadowlark-books.square.site
and may be ordered through any bookseller. Learn more at www.meadowlark-books.com.
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Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town is Cheryl Unruh’s latest masterpiece, a memoir written in prose poetry that transported me to my childhood. I too, grew up with bottle caps, firecrackers, collecting stamps, and reading wanted posters at the P.O.
ReplyDeleteThis memoir, dedicated to Cheryl’s father, Elgie Unruh of Pawnee Rock, is perfect. That means every word is precise.
The walls at Great Bend hospital aren’t white; they’re “vanilla hallways.” Family members at the hospital aren’t nervous. Instead, “a hospital waiting room ages you overnight,” and cooking over a campfire wasn’t just fun for Cheryl; “we tasted adventure in every bite.”
If you want adventure and delight without ever leaving your home tonight, read Gravedigger’s Daughter. It will improve your life.
--Jim Potter, author of Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery