Showing results by author "anne leigh parrish" in All Categories

This multi-generational novel presents three women whose paths cross at the Lindell Retirement Home. Constance Maynard, fierce, independent, and proud, reflects on her long life promoting women's rights through her career as a professor of history. Eunice Fitch, the perfect caregiver, is often unlucky in love, yet even in middle age refuses to give up searching for the perfect man. Sam Clark is a young aide with a passion for poetry and small beautiful things, but at war with her own large, ungainly physique.

In Diary of a False Assassin, Parrish’s third collection, eighty-four poems reveal the miracles of nature, the enslavement of women, and the pain of family life. Political oppression and human frailty abound. In landscapes real and imagined, the author meditates on life as we know it, and what we wish it to become.

It's 1948 and the freedom granted women by the Second World War is gone. Edith Sloan, earning her doctorate, is told by her law student husband to cancel her academic plans. His bright future requires a certain kind of wife, one in the kitchen making dinner for important guests. Frustrated and defiant, Edith leaves him but returns when his begging letters become too much. Trapped by marriage and her husband's ambition, Edith struggles to find her footing and the means to her own survival.

The Moon Won’t Be Dared is a poetry collection by award-winning author Anne Leigh Parrish that features artwork by Lydia Selk. In this momentous debut collection, the poet harnesses language to give listeners a new vision of nature, the impossible plight of womanhood, love, aging, and beauty.

In 16 short stories and a novella, Anne Leigh Parrish explores the magic of life, love, and the soft boundary between fact and fantasy. The wife of an artist disappears under mysterious circumstances, a woman has the gift of taking away sorrow, another finds inner strength through writing poetry, and a great-grandmother spends the day sitting on a folding chair in a grocery store parking lot, contemplating the nature of the human heart. What Nell Dreams is Parrish's eighth book of fiction.

Thirty-four-year-old Angie Dugan struggles with many things - anxiety, her career as a social worker in a retirement home, and her difficult family. Her biggest struggle, though, is finding love. When she meets Matt, she's swept away by his attention. As issues from his past come up, she wonders if she can trust him. Should she break it off, or give him another chance? In the end, all she can do is listen to her heart, and evaluate what she wants most.

When Lavinia Starkhurst’s husband is killed in a freak accident, she takes to the open road and meets a number of strangers, all with struggles of their own. Through these unexpected and occasionally hilarious encounters, Lavinia reflects on her past deeds, both good and bad, explores her two marriages and her roles as caregiver and wife, hoping all the while for self-acceptance and something to give her new life meaning.

In A Broken Window, Anne Leigh Parrish gives us Sam Clark, a poet haunted by the shadows of her past. Sam channels her emotions into verse, hoping to find peace and strength, but when she falls into a new relationship with Steven—a professor, seemingly wise, and full of promises—she’s unsure if happiness is something she truly deserves. As the couple moves to Boston for Steven’s academic sabbatical, Sam is ready for a fresh start. However, the city and her relationship soon reveal complexities she hadn't anticipated.

Maggie and Marta Dugan are identical twins. Their relationship has the usual sisterly strains, until home alone one afternoon, Maggie masquerades as Marta when a friend of hers drops by. The ruse is quickly discovered, a rift between the sisters ensues, and they go their separate ways. But living apart is hard; real independence harder still. Will they come back together? How long until each realizes she needs the other to feel whole?