Literary Nonfiction. AFFLICTIONS AND DEPARTURES is a collection of first-person experiential essays. However, this is not the realm of traditional memoir—in addition to incidents and feelings recaptured from memory, Sonik seeks out connections between the microcosm of the daily events of her childhood and adolescence, and the social, historical, and scientific trends of the time. AFFLICTIONS AND DEPARTURES begins by considering the turbulent and changing nature of the world in the late 1950s and early 1960s—the world in which the author was conceived and born. Like many couples of that era, Madeline Sonik's parents focused on shared social and economic ambitions at the expense of authentic personal feeling. These ambitions would erode and, by the 1970s, completely collapse. These essays are as incisive as they are moving, and leave the reader with a sense of history as it was lived, not as it is codified in countless textbooks.

Author City: VICTORIA, BC CAN

Madeline Sonik is a teacher, writer, and editor. Her work has been published extensively in journals, magazines, and academic anthologies. Her latest books include Drying the Bones (Nightwood Editions, 2001), Arms (Nightwood Editions, 2002), Belinda and the Dustbunnys (Hodgepog Books, 2003) and STONE SIGHTINGS (Inanna Publications, 2008). Most recently, she is the author of AFFLICTIONS AND DEPARTURES (Anvil Press, 2011). She has a MFA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Education, both from the University of British Columbia. She has also been the recipient of numerous awards, prizes and fellowships for her writing. She currently teaches at the University of Victoria.

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