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 From Scientist to Stroke Survivor is an extraordinary testament to the

human spirit, a powerful account of life after a stroke and the redefinition

of body and mind. And, even in the face of unimaginable disability, there

is hope and some kind of spiritual redemption, as expressed in the line

 “yet endless beauty to behold this broken world.”

-Alan Lightman , author of Einstein's Dreams

After a stroke at age 27, Elly Katz found herself in “The Vale of Soul-Making,” and this collection, Instructions for Selling Off Grief , is her song from that terrain of severe diability. With a juxtaposition of imagery––mechanical and natural, quotidian and holy––the poet struggles with “how to line up facts with truth.” In this visceral, urgent collection poetic muses and ekphrasis help the speaker create self-portraits. She says she’s “a nest rigged,” and “a bird…even if I also must be its cage.” Through these heartbreaking and tenacious poems, the speaker invites us to “Take it from me, my grief, I mean––it’s for sale.” 

-Ellen Bass, author of Mules of Love