On October 27 we are looking forward to launching THREE-PENNY MEMORIES, an exquisite memoir in poems by Barbara Leonard. The book tells a daughter’s story about her care for her mother, who is navigating Alzheimer’s. An uncle’s question, “Do you love your mother?” forces the daughter to consider if she is helping her mother out of love or out of obligation. The poems review the arc of their two lives, sometimes in a dance and sometimes in flight. The poems speak of grief, abandonment, loss, and fear; of their “mother wounds”; of their connections and disconnections across the span of their lives together. Can a daughter question her love for her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s? Can she learn to love the stranger her mother is becoming?

In addition to a reading by the author, a book signing, and general festivities, we’re told that as an added bonus there will be music from local bluegrass heroes, Ironweed. It’s going to be a wonderful evening, and attendance, as always, is completely free. Come join us!

Barbara Leonhard’s work appears in various online and print publications, and anthologies. The most recent anthology, Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women (Ed. Gabriela Marie Milton, 2022) was a #1 bestseller. Barbara earned both third place and honorary mention for two poems in Well Versed 2021. Her premier poetry collection, Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir, which is about her relationship with her mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, will be published October 2022 by EIF - Experiments in Fiction. From that memoir collection, her poem “Marie Kondo Cleans My Purse at Starbucks” was voted Spillwords Publication of the Month of January and February 2022. Barbara was also voted Spillwords Author of the Month of October 2021 and recognized as a Spillwords Socialite of the Year in 2021. Barbara enjoys hosting Zoom gatherings for poets. You can follow her on Wordpress at https://www.extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog.