# Sanctuary - Paperback

by **Susannah Carlson** (Editor), **Peter Bradbury** (Editor), **Michele Wojcicki** (Designed by)

When we started this project eight months ago, we had no way of knowing how bad things would get or how timely the final product would be. The idea of sanctuary has become a flashpoint. Empathy and kindness seem, on the surface, to have taken a backseat to hatred, nationalism, and fear. Yet, while some spew hatred, still more speak out on behalf of kindness. Such scenarios are playing out around the world, as war and economic and environmental pressures have driv- en people from their homes, seeking sanctuary and too often being turned away or worse.

The fifty pieces you find here were gleaned from over 700 sub- missions. They explore the concept of sanctuary from angles direct and oblique, political and comical, religious and secular.

Some approach the sanctuary itself, the structure or the institu- tion. Nancy Cook's two stories, _Illuminations and Illusions_ and _The After- life,_ were written during a residency in a 19th century insane asylum, the stories pulled from old newspapers and brought to life in her deft prose. Several pieces deal with shelters, both animal and human. Leslie Muzingo's story, _Heroes on the Ceiling,_ and Joyce Kryzak's essay, _In the_ _Whispering Breezes,_ explore the experience of adults and children at bat- tered women's shelters, while Jennifer Stuart's story, _House for Girls,_ in- troduces us to youthful victims of human trafficking, and Gayla Mills's essay, _Becoming Human,_ brings us inside an animal shelter and the heart of one who works there.

Other authors approached sanctuary from the point of view of those who seek it: refugees and escapees of both the innocent and the criminal kind, sometimes blurring the lines between. Michelle S. Myers's essay, _Communion on the Road,_ relates her experience escorting "barely documented" Central American asylum seekers to submit their applications, and Jennifer Stuart's story, _The Other Side,_ gives us a mo- ment in the life of one such refugee on the first steps of her journey to America. Caroline Taylor's story _Creature of Habit,_ Charlotte Platt's, _Claim Sanctuary,_ and John M. Floyd's, _The Blue Delta,_ tell the stories of fugitives whose quest for sanctuary have very different ends, while Jesse Falzoi's story, _With Every Thought,_ tells of a bittersweet experience housing a Syrian family before they move on to their new lives.

Several pieces are harder to pin down, but the concept is still there. Gina Grande's flash piece, _Drag,_ explores the safety to be found in physical self-transformation, while Scott Archer Jones's story, _Con- tentment,_ introduces us to an aging hedonist who seeks comfort in the hand of a friend, and Sage Kalmus's story, _The First Lo'ihian_, places one young man's sanctuary 50,000 years in his future, on an island that today is just beginning to be born. Ed McCourt's essay, _What We Leave_ _on the Curb,_ finds solace in the face of death, in the rebirth of a bicycle, while a physician-priest seeks sanctuary in the bottle in Nick Bouch- ard's story, _Father Pearson's Last Day._

It's a cold and disquieting world out there. I hope you find some comfort in these pages and will offer the same to any strangers who show up at your checkpoints or wash up on your shore.

_\--S.C., June 2018_

_Sunnyvale, California_

**Number of Pages:** 282

**Dimensions:** 0.64 x 8 x 5 IN

**Publication Date:** August 15, 2018

## Details

- **Price:** 16.15 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 16.15 USD | In stock |

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- Sanctuary - Paperback

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