Each day as we down to the April 18 announcement of the Minnesota Book Award winners we highlight one of the thirty-two finalists. Today we feature 2015 Memoir and Creative Nonfiction writer Kaethe Schwehn.
Navigating the Space between Who We Are and Who We Would Like to Become
Tailings: A Memoir by Kaethe Schwehn
Published by: Cascade Books/Wipf and Stock Publishers
Category sponsored by Northwestern Mutual
In 2001, twenty-two-year-old Kaethe Schwehn went to Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center located in the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. She was “between two parts in her life” and her future was filled with uncertainty. In Tailings, Schwehn revisits her time in “the village,” a place which seemed perfect initially, but later turned into something far less desirable. This memoir explores the time in a young adult’s life when the future is unknown and we have to reconcile who we are and who we want to become.
About the Author:
Kaethe Schwehn holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is the co-editor of Claiming Our Callings: Toward a New Understanding of Vocation in the Liberal Arts (2014). Schwehn has been the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant and a Loft Mentor Series award. Her fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in numerous journals. She teaches at St. Olaf College and lives in Northfield, Minnesota, with her husband and two children. Visit her website.
The reviews are in:
“Kaethe Schwehn’s poignant memoir explores longing, both spiritual and physical, community and faith, in prose that is calm, lovely, and filled with clear-eyed honesty and grace. Tailings is simply an exquisite book.” – Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer
“Already by the second chapter, this is a book hard to lay aside. Schwehn’s prose is liquid and intelligent. It catches your interest immediately and swings you from paragraph to paragraph and chapter to chapter. Her observations never stand still but sweep you forward into her story/memoir. She is a genuine artist.” – Walter Wangerin, Jr., author of Ragman and Other Cries of Faith
Links:
Join us at the Awards Gala!
Award winners will be announced at the 27th Annual Minnesota Book Awards Gala on Saturday, April 18 at the historic St. Paul Union Depot. The opening reception begins at 7 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 8 p.m. Tickets are $50 and are available by visiting www.thefriends.org/gala.
Have you read Tailings? What are your thoughts? We welcome your comments!