No Relation - by Paula Carter (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

When Paula first met James, she was 26, in graduate school, and not ready to be any kind of mother to his two young sons. But, years later, after caring for them and watching them grow, she finds herself unsure of what to do when her relationship with their father ends. In a collection of striking flash essays, Paula reveals the complexity of loving children who are not her own and attempts to put language to something we have no language to describe. No Relation is a deeply personal, beautifully rendered account of a seldom-remarked on kind of love and loss. The book was shortlisted for the Stanford Libraries William Saroyan International Prize.

About the Author

Paula Carter is the author of the lyric memoir No Relation. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Kenyon Review, Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre and elsewhere. Based in Chicago, she is a lecturer for Northwestern University where she teaches creative nonfiction and fiction workshops. She has been an Administrative Staff Fellow at the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference and is an alum of Ragdale. She serves on the organizing committee for the Washington Island Literary Festival in Wisconsin and holds an M.F.A. from Indiana University, Bloomington.