This is How You Fly
Description
"You forget / how remarkable your family is / how remarkable your kids are / how remarkable you are / and / this is how / you remember," writes Rachel Toalson in this captivating, honest, and achingly beautiful volume of poetry that illuminates love, parenting, and self-acceptance in the time of COVID-19. Probing the realities of working from home, living in quarantine with seven other people, the desperate search for solitude, and balancing depression, disordered eating, and the mental health of family members, this is how you fly is an examination and celebration of life upended by unforeseen challenges.
Written during and after the pandemic, this is how you fly is a candid documentation of the realities of life, illness, and, ultimately, survival. Toalson celebrates the day-to-day moments in lockdown, highlights the annoyance and the pleasure of living with so many people with nowhere to go, and time both flying and dragging. Her words rise above the anxiety of the unknown and offer an inspiring portrait of triumph, showing her readers: This is how you fly?you make the most of your situation.
Perfect for fans of Mary Oliver, Sharon Olds, Billy Collins, and Maggie Smith, this is how you fly is Toalson's ninth book of poetry.
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Person
The themes of identity and love amid difficult circumstances often show up in Rachel Toalson's writing, and no matter their age, gender or genre preferences, readers around the world enjoy and anticipate her hopeful message of bravery, transparency and the the human capacity to change the world, at least a small part of it.
She is the author of the middle grade fantasy series, Fairendale, (under the pen name R.L. Toalson) about a tyrant king (who may not be quite as bad as he seems) pursuing a group of magical children who become what we know as fairy tale villains, for one good reason or another; the nonfiction Family on Purpose series, which chronicles her family's daily journey into values; and This is How You Know, a book of poetry on the daily ordinary that becomes extraordinary when filtered through the lens of poetry.
Rachel Toalson's own journey into writing is a long and straight-line one. She began penning stories in small-town Texas on white computer paper back when she was a kid. When she got to college, she rose through the ranks of her college newspaper, this time telling true stories. That's where her writing career began-sitting with sources, gathering information, soaking up the stories of everyday life.
In 2015, Rachel ended her newspaper days as a managing editor, with multiple writing accolades accrued over the years, so that she could become a full-time author of both fiction and nonfiction. In her fiction she enjoys crafting tales of quirky characters who are more than what they seem on first glance. In her nonfiction, she enjoys writing about real life, real love, real struggles and the humor underlining much of our human experience. She writes middle grade fiction and picture books under the pen name R.L. Toalson; poetry, memoir and humor under Rachel Toalson; and narrative nonfiction stories and literature under Rachel L. Toalson.
Rachel is a regular contributor to Huff Post Parents, Scary Mommy, a Bundle of THYME magazine and many other publications across the world.
Born in Houston, Rachel lives with her husband and six boys in San Antonio, Texas, where she faithfully writes 5,000 words a day, five days a week.
