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Given Up for You
A Memoir of Love, Belonging, and Belief
Erin O. White
Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies
David Bergman, Joan Larkin, and Raphael Kadushin, Founding Editors
At twenty-four, she fell in love—with Jesus, and with another woman
In this candid and revelatory memoir, Erin O. White shares her hunger for both romantic and divine love, and how these desires transformed her life. In the late 1990s, she spent Saturday nights with her girlfriend and Sunday mornings in Catholic confirmation classes. But when the Church closed its doors to her, she was faced with a question: What does a lesbian believer do with her longing for God? Given Up for You explores these yearnings with bittersweet conviction, plumbing the depths of heart and soul.
Erin O. White is a writing instructor and author whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Portland Magazine, and several anthologies, most recently The Bitch Is Back: Older, Wiser, and (Getting) Happier. A native of Colorado, she lives in Massachusetts with her wife and daughters.
Erin O. White's website: http://www.erinwhite.net
Praise
“White’s search for faith is universal and easily understood. . . . Her experiences are presented in a way that’s calm and thoughtful.”
—South Florida Gay News
“Reckoning with the rival claims of queer desire and Catholic faith, Erin O. White has written that rare and wonderful thing: an intimately personal page-turner that raises complex questions about the wider world and our future in it.”
—Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks
“A testament to the struggle to reconcile desire and belief, and a poignant reminder of what's lost when a church refuses to open its doors wide. In beautiful prose, White shares her grief and longing for a faith denied, and in that telling claims a wholeness that was hers all along.”
—Sarah Sentilles, author of Breaking Up with God
“A wonderful book about the blessings—and burdens—of love, both spiritual and carnal. In White's heart, there may be no act more subversive than surrender, no prayer more devout than desire itself. Joyful, erotic, and contemplative. A miracle!”
—Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She's Not There
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Larger images
March 2018
LC: 2017042903 PS
208 pp. 5.5 x 8.5
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