Author Reading and Book Signing for SHIFT by Penny Guisinger with Robin Clifford Wood
Schedule
Thu Aug 08 2024 at 06:00 pm
Location
BookSpace | Bangor, ME
The Briar Patch cordially invites you to a book talk featuring SHIFT: A MEMOIR OF IDENTITY AND OTHER ILLUSIONS. Author Penny Guisinger will be in conversation with Robin Wood (The Field House) on Thursday, Aug. 8 at 6pm at BookSpace, our literary event space located at 48 Columbia Street in Downtown Bangor. Can’t wait to see you in the audience for this timely discussion of love, possibilities, identity and writing.ABOUT SHIFT
Penny Guisinger was not always attracted to women. In Shift she recounts formative relationships with women and men, including the marriage that produced her two children and ultimately ended in part due to her affair with her now-wife. Beginning her story as straight and ending as queer, she struggles to make sense of how her identity changed so profoundly while leaving her feeling like the same person she’s always been. While covering pivotal periods of her life, including previous relationships and raising her children across the chasm of divorce, Guisinger reaches for quantum physics, music theory, planetary harmonics, palmistry, and more to interrogate her experiences. This personal story plays out against the backdrop of the national debate on same-sex marriage, in rural, easternmost Maine, where Guisinger watched her neighbors vote against the validity of her family.
Shift examines sexual and romantic fluidity while wrestling with the ways past and present mingle rather than staying in linear narratives. Under scrutiny, Guisinger’s sense of her own identity becomes like a Mobius strip or Penrose triangle—an optical illusion that challenges the dimensions and possibilities of the world.
ABOUT PENNY GUISINGER
Penny Guisinger is the author of the memoirs Shift: A Memoir of Identity and Other Illusions and Postcards from Here. Her work has appeared in Fourth Genre, River Teeth, Guernica, Solstice Literary Magazine, and others. Pushcart nominated, a Maine Literary Award winner, and a three-time notable in Best American Essays, she is a co-director of Iota Short Forms and a former assistant editor at Brevity. Penny is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA Program.
ABOUT ROBIN CLIFFORD WOOD
Robin Clifford Wood is a poet, essayist, columnist, and author of the Maine Literary Award winner, The Field House: a Writer’s Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine. Her work has been featured in Solstice Literary Magazine, Port City Life, Bangor Metro, Décor Maine, Maine Public, Lighten Up Online, The Maine Review, Literary Ladies Guide, and more. Wood is also a hospice volunteer, musician, and outdoor enthusiast who loves the state of Maine where she lives with her husband and a goofy dog named Daisy. To learn more, visit her website: robincliffordwood.com.
ABOUT THE BRIAR PATCH
For more than 35 years, The Briar Patch has inspired and delighted generations of readers of all ages in Bangor, Maine. Specializing in children's books and creative playthings from birth through high school, the shop also carries grownup books including fiction, cookbooks, titles on parenting, resources for teachers and more. Games, crafts, puzzles, and more fill the store with something for everyone. We also host regular book signings, storytimes and other events.
ABOUT BOOKSPACE BY THE BRIAR PATCH
BookSpace is an event venue focused on the literary arts that serves as an extension of downtown Bangor's beloved bookstore, The Briar Patch. It hosts programs will include author readings & signings, book clubs, writing workshops, illustrator exhibits and more.
Where is it happening?
BookSpace, 48 Columbia St, Bangor, ME 04401-6317, United States,Bangor, Maine