Join us as we welcome Vermont author Brett Ann Stanciu for a discussion of her new book Unstitched: My Journey to Understand Opioid Addiction and How People and Communities Can Heal which shares the powerful story of one librarian’s quest to understand the impact of addiction fed by stigma and inevitable secrecy. Brett will be in conversation with Vermont poet Kerrin McCadden.
What if society looked at addiction without judgement?
The opioid epidemic has hit people in communities large and small and across all socio-economic classes. What should each of us know about it, and do about it?
Unstitched moves readers from feelings of helplessness and blame into empathy, ultimately helping friends, family, and community members separate the disease of addiction from the person underneath.
A stranger, rumored to be a heroin addict, repeatedly breaks into the small-town library Brett Ann Stanciu runs. After she tries to get law enforcement to take meaningful action against him—elementary school children and young parents with babies frequent the place after all—he dies by suicide. When she realizes how little she knows about opioid misuse, she sets out on a mission, seeking insight from others, such as people in recovery, treatment providers, the town police chief, and Vermont's US attorney.
Stanciu’s journey leads to compassionate generosity, renewed faith, and ultimately a measure of personal redemption as she realizes she has a role to play in helping the people of her community stitch themselves back together.
Librarian Brett Ann Stanciu is a graduate of Marlboro College and recipient of a Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant. Her 2015 novel Hidden View portrays the challenges of a hardscrabble family farm. She lives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont with her family.
Kerrin McCadden is the author of American Wake (Black Sparrow Press, March, 2021) and Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes, winner of the Vermont Book Award and the New Issues Poetry Prize, as well as a chapbook, Keep This to Yourself, winner of the Button Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center and won the Sustainable Arts Foundation Writing Award. She is associate poetry editor at Persea Books, associate director of the Conference on Poetry and Teaching at The Frost Place, and teaches at Montpelier High School. She lives in South Burlington, Vermont.
How to register: Registration is free, but book purchases are welcomed and appreciated--thank you for supporting our author! You must register on this page to attend the event. The event will stream on Zoom. You will receive an email with the Zoom link after registering. If you don't receive a confirmation email after registering today, contact us right away so we can check for problems.
Purchase a signed, personalized copy of Unstitched from our website HERE. Copies will be available a few days after event. If you ordered a book for store pick up, we will contact you as soon as it's ready. If you ordered a book with shipping, please allow an additional 7-10 days for delivery via USPS Media Mail.
If you have signed up for the event and are having difficulty accessing it via Zoom, please contact us via email at tickets@phoenixbooks.biz throughout the event & will do our best to provide technical support as needed.