{"product_id":"the-blessing-a-memoir-9781571313867","title":"The Blessing: A Memoir","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHailed on its original publication as eloquent testimony to the engaging power of art in a man's life (\u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e), this deeply moving memoir, long out of print, is reissued with an illuminating new afterword.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen acclaimed poet Gregory Orr was twelve years old, he shot and killed his brother in a hunting accident. From the immediate aftermath--a period of shock, sadness, and isolation--it quickly became clear that support and guidance would not be coming from his distant mother. Nor would it come from his father, a philandering country doctor addicted to amphetamines. Left to his own devices, the boy suffered.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGuilt weighed on him throughout a childhood split between the rural Hudson Valley and jungles of Haiti. As a young man, his feelings and a growing sense of idealism prompted him to activism in the civil rights movement, where he marched and was imprisoned, and then scarred again by a terrifying abduction. Eventually, Orr's experiences led him to understand that art, particularly poetry, could work as a powerful source of healing and meaning to combat the trauma he carried.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThroughout \u003cem\u003eThe Blessing\u003c\/em\u003e, Orr articulates his journey in language as lyrical as it is authentic, gifting us all with a singular tale of survival, and of the transformation of suffering into art.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGregory Orr\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of more than ten collections of poems, including, most recently, \u003ci\u003eThe Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write\u003c\/i\u003e. He is also the author of several volumes of essays, criticism, and memoir, including \u003ci\u003ePoetry as Survival\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Primer for Poets and Readers of Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e. Orr is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for \u003ci\u003eThe Blessing\u003c\/i\u003e. Orr was the founder and director of the MFA Program in Writing at the University of Virginia, and the longtime poetry editor of the \u003ci\u003eVirginia Quarterly Review\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Milkweed Editions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50505237725458,"sku":"9781571313867","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_bc4b15ee-710f-49cf-a2da-f0eeedf77c24.jpg?v=1730836119","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-blessing-a-memoir-9781571313867","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}