Kiss Me Goodnight : Stories and Poems by Women Who Were Girls When Their Mothers Died

These women are courageous. They write vivid and haunting descriptions of the cancer, suicide, alcoholism, accidents, Nazis, and other agents of death that killed their mothers. They also capture the sweet memories of their mothers--the color and smell of their clothes, the taste of the food they prepared, the light on their faces, the texture of their hair, and the memory of their kisses. Kiss Me Goodnight includes a collection of 25 short stories and essays and 72 poems written by 52 authors. Their work was chosen by a panel of reviewers who read hundreds of submissions from all over the United States--submissions that came from one tiny ad in a national poetry magazine. The majority of these women, who range in age from 15 to 80-plus, are published poets and short story writers. The works are presented in alphabetical order by last name of author and are interspersed with photographic images of some of the authors with their mothers. A reviewer of Kiss Me Goodnight said that reading these works is like walking into a sacred place. Another reviewer said the photographic images of the authors with their mothers are so intimate, so tragic, and so precious that she felt she wasn't really supposed to look at them but she couldn't stop staring. Kiss Me Goodnight takes readers out of their heads and into their hearts, where healing may begin.