PRAISE
“Deborah Sosin’s cleverly conceived Escape Velocity is a potent mix of intimacy, wit, and mounting angst over the inevitability of aging, offered in crisp, seventy-word capsules of remarkable honesty. Sosin portrays a fascinating, surprising life, ending on a perfect note of hope and resilience.”
—Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic & Desire and editor of Brevity Magazine
“In this collection of short moments chosen from a life of confusion, resentments, mistakes, epiphanies, friendship, loss, and laughter, Deborah Sosin traces the bumpy path to becoming who she is now: a woman complete in herself—imaginative, curious, full of life, and, perhaps best, someone she can rely on. Anna Hall's illustrations are marvelous, perfect. I loved this book.”
—Abigail Thomas, author of A Three Dog Life and Safekeeping
“Combining the psychological insight of a therapist, the sensitivity of a poet, and the skill of an expert storyteller, Sosin has pulled off a dazzling magic trick, capturing seventy years’ worth of transformation in seventy meaning-packed moments. Escape Velocity is a shimmering ode to the strength of the human spirit, and to the surprising ways our constraints can set us free.”
—Nicole Graev Lipson, author of Mothers and Other Fictional Characters
“In Escape Velocity, Deborah Sosin's crystalline seventy-word micro memoirs chart a decades-long journey to liberated selfhood, proving that freedom—hard-won and glorious—can arrive at any age."
—Darien Hsu Gee, author of Allegiance and Other Small Histories
“Sosin’s beautifully precise seventy-word entries are expansive, deeply thoughtful, and often very funny explorations of the moments that shape a life. Generous, heartbreaking, and evocatively illustrated by Anna Hall, Escape Velocity reminds us of the transformative power we hold when we tell our own story.”
—Hester Kaplan, author of Twice Born
“In spare, illustrated morsels infused with psychological insights, Deborah Sosin unfurls a moving, later-in-life coming-of-age story that will resonate with many—especially those who have struggled to untangle themselves from complicated family dynamics and limiting societal expectations.”
—Sari Botton, author of And You May Find Yourself...Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo and editor-in-chief of Oldster Magazine
“With the tactile skill of an old-world artisan, Deborah Sosin has conjured a wide-ranging palette of miniature vignettes for Escape Velocity, each with the vivid tone and luster of a colorful mosaic tile. And she has assembled these precise singular fragments into a cohesive self-portrait of a life journey that is both intimate and far-flung, glistening with themes of independence, love, loss, sexual awakening, psychological constructs, family ties that bristle and bind and evolve with the author’s emerging self-awareness.”
—Robbie Gamble, poetry editor at Solstice Literary Magazine
READ ABOUT THESE WONDERFUL AUTHORS ON MY FEBRUARY 13 SUBSTACK, "BLURB BRAGS & LIT LINKS."
