From the editor: I read Cohen’s memoir, WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW, with a rock in my throat. It deals with an unexpected pregnancy at an “advanced” age and has more conflict than most folks would care to deal with in a lifetime, let alone in five months of a pregnancy. (Why not nine months, you ask? Must read to find out.) No two pregnancies are alike, just as no two lives are alike, yet I guarantee Cohen’s pregnancy is by far one of the most unique for the record books. Yet I’m not just recommending it for the Ripley’s Believe It or Not plotline (yes, it’s all true), but because Cohen is so heartbreakingly honest, and like with all great reads, you will leave it with a fresh sense of gratitude for your own blessings. Every reader will find some authentic truth in her own life as she reads it. – Malena Lott
THREE SHORT WOMEN: A Writing Friendship
By Alice Eve Cohen
Writing is a solitary act. We spend countless hours in our writing caves. And because reading is also a solitary act, we can’t even observe readers experiencing our books. Frankly, we don’t get out much, and when we do, chances are that our fellow writers are still hunkered down in their caves. It’s hard to meet kindred spirits.
So it was a thrill when memoirists Julie Metz, Nancy Bachrach and I met last year at the Empire State Book Festival, where we were on a memoir panel together. We quickly discovered that we—and our books (Julie’s Perfection, Nancy’s The Center of the Universe, and my What I Thought I Knew)—had a lot in common.
For one thing, we’re all short. At 5’3 ½”, I am the tallest, a veritable giantess! I tower over my Lilliputian colleagues…by an inch or two.
Each of our memoirs is about a different, critical time in a woman’s life, with plotlines so unbelievable that they have to be true.
Our three books are each about a central relationship in a woman’s life— daughter, lover, and mother; and about our respective relationships: with a lunatic parent, a lying spouse, an unexpected baby.
All three of us write about finding humor in the unimaginable, and meaning in chaos.
After the book festival, Julie, Nancy, and I staged a reading at a bookstore in Brooklyn. It went so well that we decided to take our show on the road. We call it THREE SHORT WOMEN, THREE TALL (TRUE) TALES. Nancy, Julie and I are about to embark on our world tour! …Okay, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. We have a few bookings at theatres and libraries in Long Island and upstate New York, which we’re wildly excited about.
The three of us have been brainstorming at Nancy’s apartment, often over delicious food and wine. Last week, Nancy’s talented brother serenaded us with Chopin piano Etudes. Our rehearsals are interrupted by sidebar conversations about the new books we’re writing, by unexpected tangents about triumphs and disappointments, and by laughter. In the process of collaborating on ways to bring our books to life for an audience, Nancy, Julie and I have become friends.
We’re so busy with our writing, our jobs, and our families that it takes a gazillion emails to schedule time when we three short women can get together. When we finally do, I find it a rare pleasure to come out of my writing cave, to share wine, wisdom, work, and friendship.
Alice Eve Cohen is a memoirist, solo theater artist, and playwright. Her memoir, What I Thought I Knew (Penguin), won Elle Magazine’s Grand Prix for Nonfiction, Oprah Magazine’s 25 Best Books of Summer, and Salon.com Best Books of the Year. She teaches at The New School in New York City. www.AliceEveCohen.com
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