A poignant and inspiring anthology that shines light on the realities and nuances of family estrangement, with pieces by Stephanie Foo, Erika Krouse, Emi Nietfeld, Deesha Philyaw, and Domenica Ruta
At the root, estrangement presents an essential existential question: who are we without our family? What kind of person cuts the proverbial umbilical cord and why? And who do we become, once untethered from our kin?
Family estrangement affects over a quarter of Americans, yet estrangement can be a source of great shame: rarely discussed and often stigmatized. No Contact shines a light on the many facets of this difficult experience and counters the prevalent trope of reconciliation as a happy ending, focusing instead on the resignation, healing, and authenticity found in the rupture from family.
In wide-ranging essays and select poems, thirty writers share their experience of estrangement from vantage points that will resonate with readers who do not find their reality reflected in most media and literary representations of the topic. They share the discoveries they made, the trauma they processed, the voice they found in severing contact with family or having it severed with them. The real-life stories in this anthology explore the often devastating, always transformative ordeal of cutting or losing contact with family when it's for the best. JENNY BARTOY is a French American developmental editor and book critic. Her work appears in several anthologies and in publications such as The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, Under the Gum Tree, Room, Chicago Review of Books, CrimeReads, The Rumpus, and others. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and holds an MA from Columbia University. She lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and three children.
