Knocking on Windows
A Memoir
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Acclaimed author Jeannine Atkins revisits her past in this “brave, searing” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) memoir-in-verse about memory, healing, and finding her voice as a writer, perfect for fans of Amber Smith and Speak.
Night darkens the window to mirror.
I’m back in my old bedroom.
Six weeks after the start of her freshman year of college, Jeannine Atkins finds herself back in her childhood bedroom after an unimaginable trauma. Now home in Massachusetts, she’s struggling to reclaim her life and her voice. Seeking comfort in the words of women, she turns to the lives and stories of Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson. Through raw and poignant letter-poems addressed to these literary giants, Jeannine finds that the process of writing and reflecting has become not only a means of survival but the catalyst for a burgeoning writing career.
Inspired and ready to move forward, she enrolls in her state university, where she feeds her growing passion for writing in fiction seminars. But she finds that she’s unable to escape the pervasive misogyny of her classmates and professors, who challenge her to assert her own voice against a backdrop of disbelief and minimalization. This time, though, Jeannine is not willing to go down without a fight.
A searingly honest memoir told through gorgeous verse, Knocking on Windows stands as a beacon of hope and a celebration of the enduring spirit of survivors of sexual assault—and of writers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this lucid, accessible verse memoir, Atkins (Green Promises) chronicles her experiences as a college freshman healing from the trauma of sexual violence and finding her voice through poetry. Circa 1972, 18-year-old Atkins returns to her Massachusetts childhood home to process "the word that ends one story and starts another." When her stoic parents offer little support, she gains fleeting comfort from Sylvia Plath's poetry. Even as Atkins tries keeping busy with state college, therapy, and a string of jobs, it becomes harder to ignore misogynistic attitudes within her family, her community, and academia that strive to silence her and excuse her rapist's actions. Atkins's clarity-seeking letter-poems addressed to Plath, Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, and more bristle with honesty. Using symbolic language ("I want to find courage to wrestle out/ what hunkers inside me/ like a wounded bird flapping, ruffling wings"), the author contemplates what it means to be a writer, a woman, and a woman who writes. With empowering eloquence, Atkins reflects on suffering, survival, and sexism as she lived it within the context of the Vietnam War and civil rights legislation. It's a brave, searing autobiography that recalls the work of Laurie Halse Anderson and Amber Smith. Includes an author's note and bibliography. Ages 14–up.
