To Grieve Is to Carry Another Time by Matthew Salesses
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Join Matthew Salesses for the release of his new book To Grieve Is to Carry Another Time at Moon Palace Books on Thursday, December 3rd at 7:00pm. Matthew will be joined in conversation by Sun Yung Shin.
From the critically acclaimed author of The Sense of Wonder and Craft in the Real World comes a deeply personal, poignant memoir, weaving together Salesses' multiple identities: adoptee, Asian American, husband, father, and, finally, widower.
Matthew Salesses has spent his career writing about the power of storytelling, but he wasn’t prepared for the story of his own life to fall apart. A Korean American adoptee, Salesses grew up unsure of who he was—until he fell in love and started a family with a native Korean, Cathreen. But when Cathreen was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer, the map they made together suddenly led nowhere. After her untimely death, Salesses realized he would need new paths, new stories, new philosophies, new ways of understanding the world, to navigate the unknown landscape of loss.
To Grieve Is To Carry Another Time is a stunning, thought-provoking meditation on what grief can offer the grieving, illuminating the way to embracing yourself, finding your community, and even loving and changing the world.
Matthew Salesses is the author of The Sense of Wonder (Little, Brown, 2023), Craft in the Real World (Catapult Books, 2021), Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear (Little A, 2020), and other books. He was adopted from Korea and lives in Blacksburg, VA, where he is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing in the Virginia Tech MFA Program.
Sun Yung Shin is a Korean-born poet and writer based in Minneapolis. She is the author of five collections of poetry including The Wet Hex and Unbearable Splendor as well as two other books from Coffee House Press; an editor of three anthologies of essays including What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories about Food and Family, and an author of three picture books, most recently Revolutions Are Made of Love: The Story of James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs, co-authored with Mélina Mangal and illustrated by Leslie Barlow. Her most recent book of prose, Heart Eater: A Memoir of Immigration, Belonging, and How We Find Ourselves in Language, was published by Black Lawrence Press in July 2026. She is the 2026 Kay Sexton Award Winner, was a 2025 McKnight Artist and Culture Bearer Fellow, and has received other fellowships and recognition. She teaches with the Loft Literary Center and the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. Currently she is the 2026-2027 Distinguished Dayton Hudson Visiting Teacher / Artist in English at Carleton College. More at www.sunyungshin.com
From the critically acclaimed author of The Sense of Wonder and Craft in the Real World comes a deeply personal, poignant memoir, weaving together Salesses' multiple identities: adoptee, Asian American, husband, father, and, finally, widower.
Matthew Salesses has spent his career writing about the power of storytelling, but he wasn’t prepared for the story of his own life to fall apart. A Korean American adoptee, Salesses grew up unsure of who he was—until he fell in love and started a family with a native Korean, Cathreen. But when Cathreen was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer, the map they made together suddenly led nowhere. After her untimely death, Salesses realized he would need new paths, new stories, new philosophies, new ways of understanding the world, to navigate the unknown landscape of loss.
To Grieve Is To Carry Another Time is a stunning, thought-provoking meditation on what grief can offer the grieving, illuminating the way to embracing yourself, finding your community, and even loving and changing the world.
Matthew Salesses is the author of The Sense of Wonder (Little, Brown, 2023), Craft in the Real World (Catapult Books, 2021), Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear (Little A, 2020), and other books. He was adopted from Korea and lives in Blacksburg, VA, where he is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing in the Virginia Tech MFA Program.
Sun Yung Shin is a Korean-born poet and writer based in Minneapolis. She is the author of five collections of poetry including The Wet Hex and Unbearable Splendor as well as two other books from Coffee House Press; an editor of three anthologies of essays including What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories about Food and Family, and an author of three picture books, most recently Revolutions Are Made of Love: The Story of James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs, co-authored with Mélina Mangal and illustrated by Leslie Barlow. Her most recent book of prose, Heart Eater: A Memoir of Immigration, Belonging, and How We Find Ourselves in Language, was published by Black Lawrence Press in July 2026. She is the 2026 Kay Sexton Award Winner, was a 2025 McKnight Artist and Culture Bearer Fellow, and has received other fellowships and recognition. She teaches with the Loft Literary Center and the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. Currently she is the 2026-2027 Distinguished Dayton Hudson Visiting Teacher / Artist in English at Carleton College. More at www.sunyungshin.com
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Where is it happening?
3032 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis, MN, United States, Minnesota 55406
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherMoon Palace Books
