Awakenings: Stories of Body & Consciousness—What happens when 49 authors sit down to craft their experiences of living in a body? Magic! Curated by Diane Gottlieb, with a foreword by Gayle Brandeis, Awakenings: Stories of Bodies & Consciousness is truly a magical anthology of short essays, filled with trauma and triumph; pleasures and pain; challenges, resilience, and growth. A host of seasoned writers, including Alison McGhee, Jesse Lee Kercheval, and Jacqueline Doyle, alongside emerging artists, such as Camille U. Adams, Terry Opalek, and Sarita Sidhu, share their hearts, their limbs, their breasts—even their teeth!—on the page in this singularly stunning array of diverse voices, journeys, and literary forms. No matter where you turn in this tribute to the miracles, mishaps, and mysteries of the body, you will be moved. Awakenings will sometimes make you laugh, often make you cry, and will always spur a deep appreciation for the flesh and bones that carry us all through life.

Maureen Aitken’s short-story collection, The Patron Saint of Lost Girls, won the Nilsen Prize, the Foreword Review’s INDIE Gold Prize for General Fiction, and ranked in the Kirkus Best Indie Books of 2019. Her collection received a Kirkus Star, and a Foreword Star, and was a Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. Maureen’s short stories have been published in numerous journals, including The Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, New Letters, and the international anthology, The Bering Strait and Other Stories.

Amy Champeau is a Jungian psychoanalyst, spiritual director and somatic psychotherapist living in St Louis Park, MN. Her work, which focuses on the intersection between trauma, healing, and spiritual growth, has been nominated for PRISM’s Creative Nonfiction Award and published in Pilgrimage, Tiferet Journal and Persimmon Tree.

Elizabeth Fletcher is a writer and yoga therapist from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in New Flash Fiction Review, Lost Balloon, Confrontation, Tiferet and elsewhere. She offers classes and workshops that bridge movement and writing. Connect with her at www.esfletcher.com.

Diane Gottlieb, MSW, MEd, MFA is the editor of Awakenings: Stories of Body & Consciousness. Her writing appears in 2023 Best Microfiction, River Teeth, HuffPost, SmokeLong Quarterly, Hippocampus Magazine, The Rumpus, Chicago Review of Books, About Place Journal, and 100 Word Stories among many other journals and anthologies. Diane is the Prose/CNF Editor of Emerge Literary Journal and the founder and author of WomanPause, a newsletter dedicated to lifting the voices of women over 50.

Alison McGhee is the NY Times bestselling author of books for all ages, from novels to picture books to essays and poems. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Christopher Medal, four Minnesota book awards, the Geisel Medal of Honor, and several ALA awards. She founded the creative writing program at Metropolitan State University and now teaches creative writing workshops online. Alison can be found at alisonmcghee.com.

Cynthia Wold earned her BA in Psychology at the University of Minnesota, and an MLS in the study of Love at Metropolitan State University. In 2018, Cynthia formed “Scribble River,” a regular open forum for writing in community for the purpose of self-discovery. She is co-author of The Art of Convening, and her writing has been published in Emerge Literary Journal and Haute Dish. She is a poet and writer who wears comfortable shoes and lives with her husband in Minneapolis, MN.

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