• About
  • Cats Dig Hemingway
  • Guest Bookings
  • John King’s Publications
  • Literary Memes
  • Podcast Episode Guide
  • Store!
  • The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film
  • Videos
  • Writing Craft Discussions

The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Tag Archives: Ashley Inguanta

Buzzed Books #22: We Take Me Apart

10 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Buzzed Books

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Ashley Inguanta, Molly Gaudry, We Take Me Apart

Buzzed Books #22 by Ashley Inguanta

We Take Me Apart  

We Take Me Apart

 “In a different version it was not three beautiful

maidens but Mother and you and me and in this

version

as in all versions

happiness was her hoped for ever after

then I came along and in this version happiness was

her hoped for ever after for me

but then you came along and in this version

happiness was my hoped for ever after for us

but then you left and in this version happiness was

my hoped for ever after for you

then Mother died and there was only me”

We Take Me Apart by Molly Gaudry is a compelling novel in verse. Here we have a narrative expressed with precise language and structured in rhythmic lines and stanzas, which allows each character to speak with a specific heartbeat. This story’s structure provides opening for it to be told in heartbeats.

We Take Me Apart the story of loss and deconstruction, of mourning, of hunger. After losing her mother and lover, the narrator metaphorically takes herself apart, understanding who she is alone, how she can survive on her own–at one point living where she must kill her own food, and living inside her own silence.

The narrator is also a dressmaker who mends broken flowers, infuses their strength into her creations. There is a piercing honesty within her voice:

 

“I liked to think of these women protected by their

dresses as they felt themselves developing into finer

women

filaments

are the stalks of anthers and anthers contain pollen

sacs and I like to think now of these women in the

moments of their undressing

fragmentary

ripe for fertilization”

 It is while making these gifts the narrator grows, moves from place to place, makes costumes for the circus, eventually ending up in the Tea House, where Desire: A Haunting, the sequel to We Take Me Apart, begins.

This novel in verse explores how the ground packs thickly after loss, how the cherry blossoms change when the ones we love vanish. This story is “not straw into gold but thread into lace”—intricate, complex, delicate. We Take Me Apart will take you by the hand, bring you inside of yourself, urging you to look at your life with honesty, lay it all out on the table, piece by piece.

_______

Ashley Inguanta

Photo by Monica Mulder (Monicamulder.com)

Ashley Inguanta (Episodes 8 and 29) is a Florida-based writer and photographer whose work has appeared in Redivider, PANK, and The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review. She is also the Art Director of SmokeLong Quarterly. In 2010, Ashley’s story “The Heart of America” earned an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train for their Very Short Fiction Award. Last year, The Ampersand Review nominated her poem “San Andreas Fault” for the Pushcart Prize. Ashley is also the author of three collections of poetry: The Way Home (Dancing Girl Press), For the Woman Alone (Ampersand Books), and Bomb (forthcoming with Ampersand Books). Keep up to date with her travels, readings, and publications here.

Episode 29: The Drunken Odyssey Xmas Party

21 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Christmas literature, Drinking, Episode

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Anna King, Ashley Inguanta, Christmas literature, David Sedaris, Episode, Jamie Poissant, John King, Lisa Claire Roney, Olivia Kate Cerrone, Shakespeare, Steph Jurusz

Episode 29 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing, literature, and drinking, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I present The Drunken Odyssey Xmas Party, featuring fabulous readings of original work from

Ashley Inguanta

Ashley Inguanta by Olivia Kate Cerrone

Jamie Poissant

Jamie Poissant by Ashley Inguanta

Lisa Claire Roney

Lisa Claire Roney by Ashley Inguanta

Steph Jurusz

Steph Jurusz by Ashley Inguanta

Anna King

Olivia Kate Cerrone

Olivia Kate Cerrone by Ashley Inguanta

and John King

John King by Ashley Inguanta

Special Thanks to Pat Green and Ryan Rivas!

Episode 29 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing, literature, and drinking, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • The Drunken Odyssey
    • Join 3,114 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Drunken Odyssey
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...