[New post] ‘Brokenness and Holiness Really Go Together’: Darcey Steinke on Menopause

Jane Ratcliffe posted: "Jane Ratcliffe | Longreads | June 2019 | 19 minutes (5,308 words) By the time I finished reading Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life I had over nine pages of questions for author Darcey Steinke. She does, after all, explore a" New post on Longreads 'Brokenness and Holiness Really Go Together': Darcey Steinke on Menopause by Jane Ratcliffe Jane Ratcliffe | Longreads | June 2019 | 19 minutes (5,308 words) By the time I finished reading Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life I had over nine pages of questions for author Darcey Steinke. She does, after all, explore a variety of topics through the lens of menopause: Sex; grief; the patriarchy; whales, gorillas, horses, and elephants; God; art; the transgender community; and, of course, women's bodies, along with our minds, our spirits, our anger, and our animalness. She braids all of this into sparse, patient prose that's somehow lush and explosive, not to mention formidable and exquisitely sensitive to all beings. [Read an excerpt from Flash Count Diary on Longreads.] I first met Darcey back in the day, when I was a newbie writer and she was my scorchingly cool teacher. Dirty blonde hair, black tights, oozing brilliance, confidence and a bit of the daredevil, she kind of scared me. As it turns out, she is all of that — and also gigantically kind, funny, generous, and wise. The perfect combination to pull off a book like this. Darcey's menopausal journey begins with hot flashes so intense she, a minister's daughter, believes God must be visiting her and ends with the bone-deep realization of her place within the divinity of nature. "I pray to the body, I pray to the lake, I pray to the whale," she writes. In between she explores why there is so much scarcity and shame around menopause. Read more of this post Jane Ratcliffe | June 14, 2019 at 8:00 am | Tags: Books, interviews, menopause, sex, sexuality, women, Women's health | Categories: Books, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story, Unapologetic Women | URL: https://wp.me/p4KhvY-wKM Like Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Longreads. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://longreads.com/2019/06/14/darcey-steinke-on-menopause/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com