Beyond Belief (41 page)
Authors: Cami Ostman
V
ALERIE
T
ARICO
is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington. Valerie is the founder of
www.WisdomCommons.org
, an interactive library of quotes, poetry, stories, and essays that “elevate and celebrate humanity’s shared moral core.” As a writer she tackles the intersection between religious belief, psychology, and politics. Her books include
Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light
and
Deas and Other Imaginings: Ten Spiritual Folktales for Children
. Her articles, which have appeared at
Truthout, AlterNet, Jezebel, Slate
, and
The Huffington Post
, can be found at
www.awaypoint.wordpress.com
.
E
LIZABETH
T
AYLOR
-M
EAD
was born in New York during the baby boom generation. Moving to London at age twenty, she formed Metropolis Pictures, a documentary film company. Her Jehovah’s Witness background provided great training for a producer: making cold calls without fear and conducting evangelical pitch meetings. Metropolis built a reputation for provocative award-winning films and was part of the emerging independent film movement in the United Kingdom Returning to the United States after eighteen years, she raised movie-worshipping daughters while working on PBS documentaries, followed by ten happy years as a director of a fine art house cinema. While she is currently planning her next adventure, she is pretty certain it will not include warning people to prepare for the Apocalypse.
N
AOMI
J. W
ILLIAMS’S
short fiction has won a Pushcart Prize and appeared in numerous literary journals, including
One Story, A Public Space, The Southern Review, Ninth Letter
, and
The Gettysburg Review
. She has an MA in Creative Writing from UC Davis and lives with her family in Northern California.
About the Editors
C
AMI
O
STMAN IS A
life coach, marriage and family therapist, and author of
Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents
(Seal Press). Cami holds a Bachelor’s of Education in English in Theater from Western Washington University and a Master’s of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from Seattle Pacific University (both in Washington State). She has a special interest in helping women live more authentically and freely. She is also a dog lover, a wine connoisseur, a runner, and a blogger. Her blogs can be found at
7marathons7continents.com
and
psychologytoday.com/blog/secondwind
. Cami hasbeen appeared in
O Magazine, Adventures Northwest, Fitness Magazine, The Mudgee Guardian
(Australia), and
La Prensa
(Chile). She lives in Bellingham, Washington with her husband and for-legged creatures.
S
USAN
T
IVE IS A
writer and editor for a variety of academic, film, and women’s studies projects as well as non-fiction book titles including
Faith and Feminism
and
Rachel’s Bag
. She is currently the grant-writer and Development Director for Salt Lake Film Society. A former stay at home mom, she raised three, now grown, children in a small orthodox Jewish community in northern New Mexico. Along the way she completed her Bachelor of Science degree and earned her Masters of Liberal Arts from St. John’s College. Susan is currently writing her memoir,
Woman of Valor,
the occasionally humorous tale of a twenty-something wife and mother who bid farewell to her fashionable freedoms and blue jeans to become a religious Jew. She now lives with her agnostic husband Michael in the Pacific Northwest where she is learning to brave the rainy weather and play in her garden, delighting in the fruits no longer forbidden in her life.
S
ELECTED
T
ITLES FROM
S
EAL
P
RESS
A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman,
by Lisa Shannon, foreword by Zainab Salbi. $16.95, 978-1-58005-359-4. Through her inspiring story of turning what started as a solo 30-mile run to raise money for Congolese women into a national organization, Run for Congo Women, Lisa Shannon sounds a deeply moving call to action for each person to find in them the thing that brings meaning to a wounded world.
Lessons from the Monk I Married,
by Katherine Jenkins. $15.00, 978-1-58005-368-6. Katherine Jenkins offers up ten powerful lessons about life, love, and spirituality that she has gathered during her marriage to former Buddhist monk Seong Yoon Lee.
Kissing Outside the Lines: A True Story of Love and Race and Happily Ever After,
by Diane Farr. $16.00, 978-1-58005-396-9. Actress and columnist Diane Farr’s unapologetic, and often hilarious, look at the complexities of interracial/ethnic/religious/what-have-you love.
Fast Times in Palestine: A Love Affair with a Homeless Homeland,
by Pamela Olson. $16.00, 978-1-58005-482-9. A powerful, deeply moving account of the time Pamela Olson spent in Palestine—both the daily events that are universal to us all (house parties, concerts, barbecues, and weddings) as well as the violence, trauma, and political tensions that are particular to the country.
Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents,
by Cami Ostman. $16.95, 978-1-58005-307-5. The story of an unlikely athlete and an unlikely heroine: Cami Ostman, a woman edging toward midlife who decides to take on the challenge to run seven marathons on seven continents—and finds herself in the process.
Found: A Memoir,
by Jennifer Lauck. $17.00, 978-1-58005-395-2. Picking up where her
New York Times
best-selling memoir,
Blackbird,
left off, Jennifer Lauck shares the powerful story of her search for her birth mother, and lays bare the experience of a woman searching for her identity.
F
IND
S
EAL
P
RESS
O
NLINE
Twitter: @SealPress