DON'T JUST HANG THERE, LIVE!
"What should a girl do when the dreams of an exciting life in a new country start to fade, when the ambition bites back, when violence muscles in, and when her father dies, too young? Marie Carter's answer was to take up the trapeze, to fight fear with fear and overcome it. This is a beautiful, at times surreal, account of the author's move from Scotland to Brooklyn, of her ongoing relationships with the people she left behind and of the people who shared their skills, principally "the aerialist" who is both mentor and a symbol of how pain can be overcome.
Read this book and be empowered by both its gentleness and honesty. It is a new kind of memoir imbued with the creativity of a writer like Jeanette Winterson."
by Tea Dragon, AKA Linda Henderson
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Marie Carter
WORD JIG: NEW FICTION FROM SCOTLAND
"...the lyrical tale of one woman's love affair with the trapeze." Published by Hanging Loose Press, distributed by SPD Books (www.spdbooks.org), available online and in bookstores. ISBN: 978-1-931236-84-3, $16.00.
THE TRAPEZE DIARIES
PRAISE FOR THE TRAPEZE DIARIES
“Marie Carter’s The Trapeze Diaries is a tour de force performance—this is a writer transforming the things of daily life, the fears and struggles and unexpected glories, into weightless prose. Carter gets at the question we’re all trying to get at in one way or another: how, in this heavy world, against our own mortality and terror, can we break loose and fly? How can we get around the troubles in our own hearts and make our way toward joy? Carter finds the answer, both metaphorically and physically.”
—Maria Dahvana Headley, author of The Year of Yes
“Not only the lyrical tale of one woman’s love affair with the trapeze, but a powerful story on becoming brave and letting go.”
—Carolyn Turgeon, author of Rain Village
“A quiet meditation on loss and recovery…the narrator’s poignant voice has great clarity as she explores a new life far away from home while recovering from the death of her father. This is a brave and heartwarming book.”
—Donald Breckenridge, author of 6/2/95 and fiction editor of The Brooklyn Rail
—Maria Dahvana Headley, author of The Year of Yes
“Not only the lyrical tale of one woman’s love affair with the trapeze, but a powerful story on becoming brave and letting go.”
—Carolyn Turgeon, author of Rain Village
“A quiet meditation on loss and recovery…the narrator’s poignant voice has great clarity as she explores a new life far away from home while recovering from the death of her father. This is a brave and heartwarming book.”
—Donald Breckenridge, author of 6/2/95 and fiction editor of The Brooklyn Rail
To Contact Marie:
Email: mariecarter@ymail.com
Author Photo
Marie Carter
About Marie Carter
- Marie Carter
- graduated from Edinburgh University with an MA in English Literature. She also worked for CHAPMAN literary magazine in Scotland. In 2000, she moved to New York City where she is currently an editor at Hanging Loose Press. She is the editor of WORD JIG: NEW FICTION FROM SCOTLAND (Hanging Loose, 2003) and co-editor of VOICES OF THE CITY (Hanging Loose Press, 2004). In 2004, she ran the PLANEHOPPING: SCOTTISH WRITERS IN NEW YORK readings series at the New York Public Library. Her work has been published in HANGING LOOSE, THE BROOKLYN RAIL, SPECTACLE (circus magazine), turntablebluelight.com, yogacitynyc.com among others and in THE BEST CREATIVE NONFICTION (W. W. Norton, 2007) and VOICES OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS (LaChance, 2009). She completed a residency at the MacDowell Colony in 2006. She studies fixed trapeze and yoga. Her first book, THE TRAPEZE DIARIES, was published by Hanging Loose Press in 2008. She teaches Memoir Writing at Gotham Writer's Workshop. Currently she's working on a new memoir, LET THE SHADOWS COME.
WORD JIG: NEW FICTION FROM SCOTLAND
About WORD JIG: NEW FICTION FROM SCOTLAND
WORD JIG is an anthology of Scottish writing edited by Marie Carter that includes work by award-winning writers such as Ali Smith, Anne Donovan, Andrew Greig, Michel Faber, Linda Cracknell, Christopher Whyte, Laura Hird, Suhayl Saadi, among many others and an introduction by Chapman editor Joy Hendry. The anthology has been praised by Chris Dolan, Chuck Wachtel, Alan Spence and Aileen Christianson. WORD JIG also received a starred review in Kirkus where it was described as, "A vivid mix of realism and fantasy...in an engaging collection of prose poems, short stories and novel excerpts by 26 young Scottish authors...a welcome gathering that showcases an unusually energetic and entertaining new literary culture."
ISBN: 1-931236-25-9, $16.00. Available from Hanging Loose Press and distributed by SPD Books (www.spdbooks.org).
List of Authors in WORD JIG
Ali Smith • Laura Hird • Karen Campbell • Rob Calum MacIllechiar • Christopher Whyte • Suhayl Saadi • Michel Faber • Morgan Downie • Nalini Paul • Edward Clapp • Dave Manderson • Andrew Greig • Robert Alan Jamieson • Julie Smith • Linda Henderson • Jen Hadfield • Elizabeth Reeder • Valerie Thornton • Ian Blake • Margaret Elphinstone • Gerry Stewart • Regi Claire • Ron Butlin • Anne Donovan • Tom Murray • Linda Cracknell
ISBN: 1-931236-25-9, $16.00. Available from Hanging Loose Press and distributed by SPD Books (www.spdbooks.org).
List of Authors in WORD JIG
Ali Smith • Laura Hird • Karen Campbell • Rob Calum MacIllechiar • Christopher Whyte • Suhayl Saadi • Michel Faber • Morgan Downie • Nalini Paul • Edward Clapp • Dave Manderson • Andrew Greig • Robert Alan Jamieson • Julie Smith • Linda Henderson • Jen Hadfield • Elizabeth Reeder • Valerie Thornton • Ian Blake • Margaret Elphinstone • Gerry Stewart • Regi Claire • Ron Butlin • Anne Donovan • Tom Murray • Linda Cracknell
Some Links for Marie
- http://brooklynrail.org/2008/10/streets/the-re-enactment-of-lygia-clarks-baba-antropofgica-anthropophagic-drool
- http://brooklynrail.org/2009/03/streets/looking-for-a-place-to-hang
- http://www.amazon.com/Trapeze-Diaries-Marie-Carter/dp/1931236844/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196889221&sr=8-1
- http://www.hangingloosepress.com/newtitles.html
- http://www.creativenonfiction.org/thejournal/bestcnf/bestcnf1.htm
- http://www.macdowellcolony.org/rf_writerstext.htm
- http://www.spectaclemagazine.com
- http://www.dirtylaundryreadings.com/html/volume9.html
- http://brooklynrail.org/2007/9/streets/political-circus-dazzles-brooklyn
- http://brooklynrail.org/2007/6/streets/a-new-spin-on-an-old-tradition
- http://brooklynrail.org/2006/12/lastwords/golden-pram-complete
- http://www.turntablebluelight.com/2005/10/marie_carter.html
- http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/streets/jan05/lava.html
- http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/fiction/nov04/wonderwheel.html
- http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/fiction/feb04/shortandlame.html
- http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/fiction/feb04/ontheotherside.html
- http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/fiction/nov04/wonderwheel.html