Tag: newmemoir2023

July 12, 1968

The column headings are written in my father’s all-cap print. The entry – incredibly, to me – is written in my mother’s hand, a confident cursive complete with cheerful circle above the “i” in Happiness. In the four journals I have of my father’s, this is a lone entry on the last balance sheet he would keep in those pages.

Listen to an excerpt from The Gathering Girl. (From the chapter “Dear Tom, Dear Susan.”)

Psych NP Publishes Debut Memoir

Columbus-based psychiatric nurse practitioner, Amanda Rush, has published her debut memoir, The Gathering Girl.

“Seven years in the writing, this book is my attempt to make meaning of the cumulative and relatively quiet damage wrought by my parents’ divorce, my mother’s mental illness, and a childhood in which I was generally left to tend to myself. I hope my book will inspire others whose lives have been impacted by adverse childhood events to re-examine their life narratives and move toward a place of healing.”

Amanda Irene Rush

Summary

When she was 12, Amanda’s best friend’s family gifted her a Christmas stocking stuffed with a carton of cigarettes. She was thrilled. The cigarettes meant she would no longer have to steal and smoke her mother’s uncool brand. And the stocking—though it didn’t have her name stitched along the top like everyone else’s—meant, for the moment at least, that she belonged. She hadn’t felt that way since before her free-spirited mother left her corporate-climbing father with 4-year-old Amanda and her older sister in tow. Before her father remarried a woman who never wanted children. Before her mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Before Amanda and her sister were left to largely fend for themselves.

More than three decades later, with the death of her parents as a catalyst, Amanda began sifting through the relics of her family’s fragile past. She wondered if the chance objects she and her mother and father had held on to—a faded doodle of a girl gathering apples, broken knickknacks, worn family photos and her parents’ journals—might unravel their long-standing and tightly woven narrative and tell a different story.

Searching through the eyes of “The Gathering Girl,” Amanda discovers an alternate truth buried within the deepest roots of her family tree. She demonstrates how the untangling of a twisted past can be both beautiful and brutal, and how the journey can ultimately lead to forgiveness.

Click HERE to Order a Copy Today!

Book Me!

Why Me?

I LOVE to do readings. I will read anything, anywhere, anytime, to anyone.

I once gave an impromptu reading of an essay (about my late mother-in-law who had Alzheimer’s) at our local YMCA to my husband’s Pilates class. I have presented papers at the American Folklore Society’s 2000 Annual Meeting (“An Honest Living: A Stripper’s Negotiation of Self”) and at the Midwest Slavic Conference in 2002 (“Writing to Fill the Void: The Conceit of Confession in Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov”). I’ve read at open mics, MFA programs, libraries, mental health support groups, and family gatherings.

I believe writing is more than just putting words on a page. It’s a relationship between writer and reader, author and audience. For my words to truly come alive, they need to be heard. So, book clubs, libraries, literary festivals, retirement communities, writing classes, MFA programs, support groups, lover of words, bored retirees, and anyone else who likes to listen to a good story, I would love the opportunity to come read part of The Gathering Girl to you and your group.

Why The Gathering Girl?

Has your life been impacted by adverse childhood experiences, and do you still find yourself navigating the grabby roots of a dysfunctional family? The Gathering Girl is for you.

Are you a nurse, psychiatrist, social worker, therapist, or other mental health advocate whose passion it is to help people re-examine their life narrative and move toward a place of healing? The Gathering Girl is for you.

Are you a reader or writer drawn to meditations of memory, identity, and the interplay between fate and free will? The Gathering Girl is for you.

(If The Gathering Girl still doesn’t sound like it’s for you, browse my site and see if any of my other work would be a better fit for your group. Like I said, I’ll read anything! This includes works in progress. Just ask!)

How to Book Me

Please use the fields below to provide your name, email, and a brief message about your group, club, or event. Then hit the “Book Me!” button. I will respond promptly to work out the details with you.

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Thank you for your response. ✨

Upcoming Readings

All readings are free and open to the public.

  • Wednesday, June 28, 2023 from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. at Champaign County Library, 1060 Scioto St., Urbana, OH 43078*
  • Saturday, August 26, 2023 from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. at Mechanicsburg Public Library, 60 S. Main St., Mechanicsburg, OH 43044*

* Books will be available to purchase at this event.

Mad Lib Book Reviews!

At my book launch party in Columbus last week, I asked people to give me four words. I’m sure they wondered why. Who remembers Mad Libs? There’s a scene in The Gathering Girl where my friend Heather and I are playing them, and I thought, why not try a little Mad Libbing of my own? Here are just a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

The Gathering Girl by Amanda Irene Rush is a flaming book about apprehensive baboons. I would recommend it to anyone interested in apricots.

The Gathering Girl by Amanda Irene Rush is a luscious book about joyful cats. I would recommend it to anyone interested in sisters.

The Gathering Girl by Amanda Irene Rush is a silly book about ambivalent houses. I would recommend it to anyone interested in dogs.

The Gathering Girl by Amanda Irene Rush is a hard book about glorified motorcycles. I would recommend it to anyone interested in baboons.

The Gathering Girl by Amanda Irene Rush is a special book about melancholy dogs. I would recommend it to anyone interested in homes.

It’s a Book!

April 16, 2023: “The Gathering Girl” goes out into the world.

Today is the day I announced my book to the world. Well, at least to my small corner of it. Back in 2018, when I was wrapping up the final summer residency of Ashland University’s MFA in Creative Writing program, I told the instructor and my fellow students that I wanted to publish a book by the time I was 50. I will turn 51 in 10 days. I just made it!

Seven years in the writing, this memoir is my attempt to make meaning of the cumulative and relatively quiet damage wrought by my parents’ divorce, my mother’s mental illness, and a childhood in which I was generally left to fend for myself.

My hope is that anyone who has experienced adverse childhood events or who lives with the residue of a dysfunctional family will find some solace in my story.