{"product_id":"if-this-were-fiction-a-love-story-in-essays-9781496232359","title":"If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays","description":"2023 Heartland Booksellers Award finalist \u003cbr\u003e Foreword INDIES Silver Winner in Autobiography and Memoir \u003cbr\u003e Winner of a 2023 Book of the Year Award from Chicago Writers Association \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eIf This Were Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e is a love story--for Jill Christman's long-ago fiancé, who died young in a car accident; for her children; for her husband, Mark; and ultimately, for herself. In this collection, Christman takes on the wide range of situations and landscapes she encountered on her journey from wild child through wounded teen to mother, teacher, writer, and wife. In these pages there are fatal accidents and miraculous births; a grief pilgrimage that takes Christman to jungles, volcanoes, and caves in Central America; and meditations on everything from sexual trauma and the more benign accidents of childhood to gun violence, indoor cycling, unlikely romance, and even a ghost or two. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Playing like a lively mixtape in both subject and style, \u003ci\u003eIf This Were Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e focuses an open-hearted, frequently funny, clear-eyed feminist lens on Christman's first fifty years and sends out a message of love, power, and hope.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJill Christman\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of two memoirs, \u003ci\u003eDarkroom: A Family Exposure\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBorrowed Babies: Apprenticing for Motherhood\u003c\/i\u003e. She is a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Ball State University, a senior editor of \u003ci\u003eRiver Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative\u003c\/i\u003e, and executive producer for the podcast \u003ci\u003eIndelible: Campus Sexual Violence\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50615344005394,"sku":"9781496232359","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f1110921-f795-4f57-ad04-0c88f32cf109.jpg?v=1732482849","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/if-this-were-fiction-a-love-story-in-essays-9781496232359","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}