And There Was Evening and There Was Morning: Essays on Illness, Loss, and Love

by Mike Smith

Literary Nonfiction. Essays. A moving nonfiction debut by Mississippi Delta poet Mike Smith, this memoir-in-essays, AND THERE WAS EVENING AND THERE WAS MORNING: ESSAYS ON ILLNESS, LOSS, AND LOVE, tracks the loss of Smith's first wife to cancer after the birth of the second child, offering a portrait of marriage, family, and tragedy. In honest, and at times darkly comic terms, Smith documents the strange set of coincidences between his first wife's illness and his stepdaughter's similar battle the year his second marriage began, and examines blended families, remarriage, helping children find ways to cope with the loss of a parent, and the influence of spirituality upon loss. Author Tony D'Souza calls Smith "a reflective and precise writer, [who] invites us to walk each step with him as his heart is annihilated." Beth Ann Fennelly, author of Heating & Cooling, says, "What a gift Mike Smith has given us... His prose is nuanced, his voice considered and considerate, his wisdom hard-earned but never bitter. There is beauty and solace here and gorgeous imagery. Smith has written a book for all of us who are dying--which is to say, all of us who are living, and our lives will be the better for having read it." Author Julianna Baggott's writes: "What I love most is that this isn't a book about learning to let go but instead learning that the heart can expand to hold more love..."

145 pages, Paperback

Published September 14, 2017

About the author

A native of Philippi, West Virginia, Mike Smith is a graduate of UNC-G, Hollins College, and the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of And There Was Evening and There Was Morning, a collection of essays forthcoming from WTAW Press (Santa Rosa, CA) in fall 2017. He’s published three collections of poetry, including Byron in Baghdad and Multiverse, both from BlazeVOX Books (Buffalo, NY). In addition, his translation of Goethe’s Faust: A Tragedy, was published by Shearsman Books in 2012. His most recent translation project is Contemporary Chinese Short-Short Stories, forthcoming from Columbia University Press. Together with software engineer Brandon Nelson, Mike created and curates The Zombie Poetry Project. He lives in Cleveland, Mississippi.
Podcast: http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/zombie-life

Reviews

[Gabi Coatsworth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays rather than a linear memoir, so wasn’t quite what I was expecting. (it did say it was essays, but I didn’t notice) I found it more of a reflection on life after the death of a spouse, and quickly into a new relationship, so it didn’t resonate with me.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely, powerful, and heartbreaking. Mike is a masterful writer and a good person.

[Chelsea Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and beautiful.

[Lauren Alwan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Mourning,” Hilary Mantel wrote, “is work. It is not simply being sad. It is naming your pain. It is witnessing the sorrow of others, drawing out the shape of loss.” Who among us, when grieving, is willing to examine those contours and shadows? We’re more likely to seek comfort, to use memory as a form of solace rather than investigation. In his nonfiction debut, And There Was Evening And There Was Morning from WTAW Press (September 2017), poet Mike Smith undertakes the work Mantel describes, bearing witness to sorrow and drawing the shape of an unimaginable loss. The memoir-in-essays centers on his late wife, Emily Arndt, who at age thirty-six, three weeks after the birth of their second child, was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer, and died four months later.

These fifteen essays, as the book’s subtitle tells us, chronicle illness, loss, and love, but also look at family, place, spiritual thought, and the sustenance of faith. When the diagnosis came, Arndt had just completed her first year as an assistant professor of Theology at Georgetown University, and completed her first book—Demanding Our Attention: The Hebrew Bible as a Source for Christian Ethics—though its publication would come almost four years later. In his grief, Smith questions almost everything, including his faith, and in the course of his inquiry frequently refers to her rich ideas and insights.

Read more of my review, here: http://www.litstack.com/litstack-revi...

[Lynn Shurden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starting this book some months ago, I had to put it aside because it was just too difficult for me to read. But I finally finished it today. I can’t begin to imagine how difficult this was for Mike to write, for Jennifer to read and yet, what a gift for all their children. Blending families is never easy but particularly when there is such a loss as Mike’s. He is truly a gifted writer.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of this book’s appeal to me is my identifying with it having lost my wife a few years ago and understanding the voids that randomly fill your life. This book was very well written and covers well his great loss and the manner in which he deals with it.