Because the Sky is a Thousand Soft Hurts

<p>In her brilliant collection BECAUSE THE SKY IS A THOUSAND SOFT HURTS Elizabeth Kirschner fearlessly blends poetry prose memoir and master storytelling into an amalgam that lands like a gut-punch to the soul. I literally found myself taking a deep breath at the beginning and the end of each story to both steel and re-orient myself. There is nothing easy about the magic Kirschner casts; rather its complexity serves to illuminate the indomitability of the human spirit in those deep dark places where it would seem no spirit could survive. This is a devastatingly beautiful book.</p><p><br></p><p>-Laura Hurwitz Author of Disappear Home</p><p><br></p><p>BECAUSE THE SKY IS A THOUSAND SOFT HURTS is a master stroke. Brimming with a hallucinatory spirit these are less stories and more poetic and metaphysical voyages. In this collection Kirschner gives voice to the disturbed and hopeful in her characters' psyches-penetrating the repressed thrust into the sublime. In its earlier stories Kirschner brilliantly reinvents the simile with it granting every sentence a double-life; and the later sections prove not only beautiful in their prose but with keen sense of narrative drive. A literary achievement this collection rewards re-reading over and over again.</p><p><br></p><p>-Jonathan Koven author of Palm Lines and editor of Toho Journal</p><p><br></p><p>This collection is a powerhouse of language; its sentences sing with heat and precision. Elizabeth Kirschner expertly crafts the unexpected. These stories leave the reader feeling haunted and moved. They are a mediation on loneliness and the unspoken. Kirschner's voice is poetic lyrical and singular. A monumental exploration of beauty in unpredictable places. Kirschner exposes the vulnerable and damaged through the lens of hope and redemption. A stunning collection that will stay with me for a long time.</p><p><br></p><p>-Erika Nichols-Frazer Editor An Anthology of Mental Health Recovery Stories</p><p><br></p><p>Reading Elizabeth Kirschner's BECAUSE THE SKY IS A THOUSANDS SOFT HURTS is like being enveloped in layers of jeweled robes-each layer intricate with emotional depth and magnificent prose. Kirschner's characters brave their lives-family violence; childhood trauma-in scenes so immediate and chilling the reader is dared to both look deeply then look away-in awe. </p><p><br></p><p>-Sari Rosenblatt author of Father Guards the Sheep</p><p><br></p><p>We need more voices like Elizabeth Kirschner's whose words connote the reality of trauma illness neurodivergence and beauty through the juxtaposition of her own associative metaphors similes and images. A published poet and memoirist she also proves adept at fiction. These are not conventional stories but quantum fictions.</p><p><br></p><p>-Kevin Richard Kaiser editor-in-chief of Punt Volat and author of An Ethics Beyond: Posthumanist Animal Encounters and Variable Kindness in the Fiction of George Saunders</p><p><br></p><p>Elizabeth Kirschner's collection dances on a keen edge-not only between fiction and poetry but hallucination and holiness. This is a collection full of dark corners and glorious twists. Reader take it slowly. Savor it.</p><p><br></p><p>-Adam Prince author The Ugly Wishes of Beautiful Men</p><p> </p><p>Kirschner's prose is a crucible in which characters causation and language itself are broken down and recast. But it is ultimately our own hearts that emerge pulverized and purified from her fires.</p><p><br></p><p>-Jonathan Freeman-Coppadge Fiction Editor Oyster River Pages</p><p><br></p>