MOSAICS A Collection of Independent Women

MOSAICS 2 (A Collection of Independent Women)
Available May 1, 2016 at Amazon.com
http://amzn.to/24thcyc
 

 

This is Volume 2 in the Mosaics collection and contains stories by twenty-two independent women.

 

 

http://amzn.to/24thcyc

 

Following is an excerpt from the book synopsis posted on Amazon:

Mosaics: A Collection of Independent Women will inspire and shock you with its multi-faceted look at the history and culture surrounding femininity. If gender is a construct, this anthology is the house it built. Look through its many rooms, some bright and airy, some terrifying-- with monsters lurking in the shadows.

*****     *****

Author Kimberly Fukioka asked me to read the book and offer a review in exchange for a copy. In return, I asked Kim to participate in a short interview to get a feel for how these Mosaics anthologies came about. She graciously agreed.

Question #1: How did the idea for the Mosaics anthology develop?

Author Kimberly Fukioka: Thank you for offering to do the blog post. The anthology was edited and produced by Kim Wells. A quote from her website below kind of answers your question about the impetus for the anthology.

"Crafting the intersectional feminist anthology that I'm working on, my writing partners & I are committed to finding writers from communities not always well represented in indie publishing, or anthologies, or just about any literary scene. So we wrote a call for submissions that stated exactly what we were hoping for, being specific about welcoming womanist and racially intersectional feminism in addition to GLBT and disabled stories." Kim Wells, editor and publisher.

Question #2: How does the title of your story dovetail with the mission of the anthology?

Author Kimberly Fukioka: My story, "Don't Shut Up!" is the empowering story of one young woman to face her abuser even when it means separating from her mother. Her mother admonishes her to shut up and accept the status quo-- sexual abuse and physical violence--but she refuses and escapes barefoot and bleeding in the snow. In this piece the reader can see the long term effects of sexual abuse and how a woman learns to tell the truth about her life. This act of courage is a way she reclaims her voice and power to escape violence and take her place at the table of other independent women.

When I submitted my story to the anthology I thought many women could identify with it because it is such a heart wrenching decision that so many sexual victims of the patriarchal culture worldwide must grapple with: do I stay or do I leave? When I posed that question to myself as the young woman in the story, my mind was doing flip flops, I was emotionally in turmoil, because my identity had been built on the single brick of "being a victim". If I spoke up and left, I was no longer a victim. But who was I ? In a leap of faith, I acted. We all must act in a single leap of faith. There are so many of us out there: victims of trafficking, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, transgender abuse etc. The courage of one woman can give so many others hope. It can even change a community or a society.

*****     *****

 

Upon receiving Mosaics, I naturally turned first to Kim's story before reading the entries submitted by the other twenty-one independent women. Unprepared for the revelations Kim's story contained, I reacted less from a standpoint of fellow author than empathetic friend.

 

As Kim states above, the purpose of laying bare past wrongs

is to empower others who have or are experiencing

similar tragic events.

 

After reading several more of the entries in Mosaics, I began to question if an anthology was an effective venue for supporting others who suffered abuse or violence. I am an advocate of revelation over silence. But I had given little thought to the latter over the years as my tendency is to "move on" if a relationship edges toward the unacceptable.

 

What I hadn't given sufficient consideration was that my option is not always available to others. At least, not available without the mind "flip flops" and emotional turmoil that result when moving on is beyond imagination.

 

I approached this review unconventionally because the novellas and short stories within Mosaics are not meant to be read at a fast clip. Each story, written in a single leap of faith, deserves individual attention. What we, as readers, learn from these leaps of faith is up to us.

 

What we must admit is that changing a community or a society requires that someone choose to speak up. These twenty-two independent women have made that choice. I respect that.