2014 International Latino Book Award Finalist

Letters to My Daughter: A collection of short stories and poems about Love, Pride, & Identity

Authored by Nancy Arroyo Ruffin   

Nancy Arroyo Ruffin’s Letters to My Daughter is one woman’s testimony about gender, race, love, family, and the importance of creating a legacy that one can be proud of.

 

Welcome To Heartbreak: A collection of poems, short stories, and affirmations about love, life & heartbreak.

Authored by Nancy Arroyo Ruffin               

In this compelling memoir, told through prose and poetry, Nancy Arroyo-Ruffin walks through the fire to face her most painful memories and does so openly and honestly. Raised on the ruthless streets of Brooklyn, NY in the 1980’s, Arroyo-Ruffin takes us on a thrilling voyage of love, loss, and heartbreak.

Full of inspirational quotes & positive affirmations, Welcome to Heartbreak, is a literary portrait depicting the hardships many young adults endure when transitioning from childhood to adulthood. It is about accepting the past and learning how to move forward from unhealthy situations.

From surviving the brutal murder of a close relative, to helping the love of her life battle a deadly illness, to having her deepest desire snatched from her womb; this is a gripping account of one young woman’s determination to heal herself through love, forgiveness, and acceptance. Burned and pillaged by some of the people she trusted most, this phoenix rises from the ashes to show us that even through heartbreak, beauty and happiness can flourish.

“Heartbreaks don’t break us, they make us stronger.”- Nancy Arroyo Ruffin

 

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Buy BOTH Letters to My Daughter and Welcome to Heartbreak:

 

 

Joy, Interrupted: An Anthology on Motherhood and Loss 

Edited by Dr. Melissa Miles McCarter    

Joy can be interrupted – but not lost.  Most people think of motherhood as a joyous experience, but for some it can be an experience of interrupted joy. This anthology delves into the subject of motherhood and loss from different perspectives of authors and artists from all over the world.

The book is uniquely structured around the five stages of grief, mirroring the grief journey many go through. Editor and publisher Melissa Miles McCarter conceived of the anthology six years after her daughter died of SIDS and then struggling with secondary infertility after an ectopic pregnancy. The anthology focuses on mothers and their children who face loss in all forms, losses which can “interrupt the narratives of our lives.”

Some of these universal themes addressed include: coping with the death of a child; relationships between mother and child (including adoption and estrangement): caring for disabled children: and having to mother one’s own mother because of an illness.

This anthology includes Short Stories, Poetry, Art Work, Essays, Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction and more. Contributors explore such topics as Adoption, Death, Infertility, Disabilities, Illness, and Estrangement. Various themes addressed include Coming of Age, Identity, Recovery, Connections, and Forgiveness.

The internationally acclaimed contributors are: Nancy Arroyo Ruffin, Merrill Edlund , Aliki Economides, Monika Pant, Grace Benedict, Chris Reid, Paul Salvette, Terri Elders , Liz Dolan , Mark Moore, Emily Polk, Lottie Corley, Sandra Kolankiewicz, Megan Moore, Valerie Murrenus Pilmaier, Anna Steen, Nina Bennett, Kim Hensley Owens , Joanne L. DeTore, Robyn Parnell, Danelle, Svetlana Bochman, Erin Williams, Gail Marlene Schwartz, Olivia Good , Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow, Margaret Kramar, Carol Alexander, Valean Iolanda, Samantha, Kristin Anderson, Lisa Wendell, Janeen McGuire, Anindita Chatterjee, Jenn Williamson, Mazel Flores, Rebecca Manning, Pooja Sachdeva,  Gabriella Burman, Sheila Hageman, Ruth Krongold, G. Karen Lockett Warinsky , Jennifer Molidor, Alan Nolan, Trangdai Glassey-Tranguyen, Jemila Modesti, Deborah Finkelstein, Jessica Karbowiak, Ann Mathew, Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, Ione Citrin, Ivan Jim Saguibal Layugan, Mary O’Neill, Lori Lamothe and Michèle AimPée Parent.

 *This book can be purchased on Amazon.