FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Givens / 909-293-9270 / mark.givens@pelekinesis.com
Personal essays that rely on various works of literature as a catalyst for grief, as well as a means of pushing past grim realities to begin envisioning life reconstructed.
Closing the Book: Travels in Life, Loss, and Literature by Joelle Renstrom
Publication Date: August 18, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-938349-24-9
5x8, paperback, 225 pages
Suggested Retail Price: $20.00
Claremont, CA – March 24, 2015 – Pelekinesis is proud to announce the release of Joelle Renstrom's “Closing the Book: Travels in Life, Loss, and Literature” exploring the intersection of literature and life in personal essays about traveling, teaching, reading, writing, living, and dying. Each essay's narrative arc is formed and informed by the act of reading literature that makes a reader feel like the book she's reading was somehow written specifically for her to read in that exact moment.
Renstrom, who moved to New York on September 8, 2001, reads Kurt Vonnegut's “Sirens of Titan” and engages the assertion that “[we are all] victims of a series of accidents,” in an attempt to make sense of the roles of luck, fate, and karma in the events of 9/11, as well as the aftermath in her own life and in the lives around her. Renstrom uses Don DeLillo's “White Noise” as a vehicle for contemplating mortality as she struggles with her father's cancer diagnosis, her unexpected return to her hometown, and the fear of death that envelops her family's entire existence. Later, as the author travels to Sweden with her father's ashes, searching for some sign of him, his ancestors, or of her true but lost self, she writes a series of letters to Ray Bradbury, whose work she reads along the way.
Renstrom relies on science fiction as a catalyst for grief, as well as a means of pushing past grim realities to begin envisioning life reconstructed and to embrace the idea that “there's nothing wrong with rebuilding forever.”
Closing the Book: Travels in Life, Loss, and Literature by Joelle Renstrom will be available August 18, 2015 through Small Press Distribution, Baker & Taylor, Bertrams, directly from the publisher's website, and in fine local bookstores worldwide.
The page at Pelekinesis for supplemental material is here: http://www.pelekinesis.com/catalog/joelle_renstrom-closing_the_book.html
For more information please contact Mark Givens at 909-293-9270 or mark.givens@pelekinesis.com
About the author
Joelle Renstrom is a writer living in Somerville, MA. Joelle's award-winning blog Could This Happen? explores the relationship between science and science fiction. Her work has appeared in Slate, Guernica, The Toast, and others. Joelle teaches writing and research with a focus on space, artificial intelligence, and science fiction at Boston University.
About the publisher
Pelekinesis is an independent book publishing company focusing on the development of literary-minded authors and artists by embracing the evolving publishing paradigm and creatively supporting the skills of these talented individuals. Full catalog and press material can be found at http://www.pelekinesis.com
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Supplemental Material
 FRONT COVER (click to download) |