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Visiting Author – DeMisty D. Bellinger – All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere: Stories
October 10 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Join us as we welcome DeMisty D. Bellinger to Francie and Finch Bookshop on October 10th at 6:00!
Order a copy of All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere HERE!
About the Book:
Winner of the Barbara DiBernard Prize in Fiction
Fantastical, sensual, and as beguilingly strange as they are insightful and real, the stories of All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere are centered around intimate familial or romantic relationships, featuring protagonists who make awesome discoveries—from the beautiful to the horrible—in seemingly mundane situations. The protagonists in each story come from marginalized communities, which sometimes exacerbates their problems but always allows for unique perspectives and epiphanies.
A violinist nearly hits a bicyclist with her car on her rush to rehearsal, leading to a blissful affair and speculation about the effect of love on her violin playing. The whispering of schoolgirls leads a teacher to consider her own fears and failings. In the title story the nature of motherhood, fatherhood, and familial pride plays against a backdrop of death and high school theater.
These are stories of human frailty and newfound strengths, with surprising confrontations. The writing is rich and playful, whether the characters are coy or startlingly direct, creating worlds in which the metaphorical might become literal in the blink of an eye. DeMisty D. Bellinger finds magic in the smallest moments and makes the biggest moments resonate with a quiet intensity.
About the Author:
DeMisty D. Bellinger lives with her family in Central Massachusetts, where she teaches creative writing. She has a BA in English from University of Wisconsin-Platteville, an MFA from Southampton College, and a PhD from the University of Nebraska. She is an alum of Bread Loaf and Marge Piercy’s Intensive Writing Workshop. Also, she was a resident at the Vermont Studio Center on a fellowship and at Gullkistan in Iceland with support from friends and family.
Praise for All Daughter Are Awesome Everywhere:
“DeMisty Bellinger’s new collection is full of surprising connections, complex questions, and wonderfully human perspectives on relationships and networks of kinship. I wanted to both race through it and savor every moment.” – Ilana Masad, author of All My Mother’s Lovers: A Novel
“In All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere DeMisty D. Bellinger has gifted us a book of many worlds beneath the same roof, its stories and characters at turns brash, tender, joyous, sly, and always deeply, messily human. I loved dwelling in these pages. I loved the ride this collection took me on: one full of surprises and heart” – emily m. danforth, author of Plain Bad Heroines and The Miseducation of Cameron Post
“Bellinger’s prose is honest and unflinching. A thoughtful, observant collection of short stories from an important voice.” – June 15, 2024 Kirkus Reviews
“Infectious reading. All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere is a feast of storytelling where women—mothers, daughters, and lovers—travel the roads between a world that wishes to constrain them and the ferocious realm of their own desires.” – Elwin Cotman, author of Weird Black Girls