Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
Author: annsepstein@att.net
Ann S. Epstein is an award-winning writer of novels, short stories, memoirs, and essays.
Australian James Harrison retired as a blood donor at age 77, after 1,173 donations, a Guinness world record. He’s credited with saving the lives of over 2.4 million babies. Known as the Man With The Golden Arm, James’s blood produces a rare antibody which cures the otherwise fatal Rhesus disease in unborn children. His blood has also been used in the development of a medicine, known as anti-D, which, it is hoped, will banish the Rhesus disease in children forever. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
James Harrison, Man with the Golden Arm, blood donor to millions
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
Mario Andretti began racing at 13. Born in Italy in 1940, he entered his first auto race when his family was living in a refugee camp during WW2. His love of racing accelerated after his family moved to the U.S. in 1955, where he made his professional debut. Andretti went on to win numerous Formula One, Indianapolis and Daytona 500, and Grand Prix titles. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Mario Andretti began racing at age 13 in a refugee camp during WWII
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
My Goodreads and Amazon review of By the Waters of Paradise: An American Story of Racism and Rupture in a Jewish Family by Clare Kinberg (Rated 5) – The Ties That Break. The titleBy the Waters of Paradise: An American Story of Racism and Rupture in a Jewish Family by Clare Kinberg is a summation of the multiple angles brought to bear on the author’s search for an unknown relative. Kinberg sets out to “find” her father’s late sister, Aunt Rose, who was banished from her Jewish family and close-knit St. Louis community for marrying a black man. Her personal search also becomes a historical investigation of race and religion in the last century, strands which Kinberg interweaves in a smooth and provocative narrative. With so much of the story untraceable, she draws on empathy and her own experience being married to a mixed-race woman and raising two black daughters, to imagine what life was like for Aunt Rose, her entrepreneurial husband Zeb Arnwine, and the black lakeside community in Michigan where they settled and opened Zeb’s Bar-B-Q joint. Examining the racism in her family helps Kinberg trace her own abhorrence of the tribal bigotry that poisons all of society. Likewise, she reconciles her faith with the racism and misogyny in Judaism by naming it, acknowledging its role in scripture, then writing new stories that teach alternative lessons on how we are commanded to treat people. As a fiction writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), who creates characters as well as their stories, I admire Kinberg’s inventiveness. She reconstructs a credible life that connects her to the past and the present. Her accumulated knowledge and persuasive storytelling will accomplish the same for readers attempting to patch holes in their own histories.
Finding ourselves by reconstructing our ancestors
Why writers read: “If you want a new idea, read an old book.” – Ivan Pavlov
A. A. Milne was 33 years old when he created the fictional teddy bear Winnie the Pooh, which today celebrates the 100th anniversary of its 12/24/1925 publication as a children’s story in London’s Evening News. “Winnie” is named for a stuffed bear Milne had bought his son, Christopher Robin, at Harrod’s Department Store, and a bear they’d seen at the London Zoo. Milne went on to publish four volumes of Pooh books, all illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Milne explains the name in the first’s book’s opening chapter: “His arms were so stiff … they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and whenever a fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow it off. And I think – but I am not sure – that is why he is always called Pooh.” Proud of the books when he was young, the real Christopher Robin came to resent his father for exploiting his childhood. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Winnie the Pooh has been translated into many languages, including Latin
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
Benjamin Franklin’s notable accomplishments occurred early and late in his life. He established the first public library at age 25 and the first official fire department at age 29. He was 70 when he signed the Declaration of Independence, the oldest Founding Father. In the intervening decades, he was a printer and publisher, shopkeeper, author (Poor Richard’s Almanac), inventor (he designed a heat-efficient stove and bifocals), scientist (experimenting with electricity), and diplomat. He died in 1790 at age 94. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Benjamin Franklin left a mark from his 20s to his 90s
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
Henry Bergh was 53 when he founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in 1866, after witnessing the harsh treatment of horses by teamsters in Tsarist Russia. Eight years later, the wealthy New Yorker also helped found the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC). When Bergh died in 1888, at age 75, 39 states had enacted laws against animal cruelty. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Appalled by the harsh treatment of horses, Henry Bergh devoted his life to preventing cruelty to animals
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
The life of crime of Billy the Kid (William H. Bonney) began at age 16. Born Henry McCarty in 1859 to Irish immigrants in New York City, his childhood was marked by hardship. After his mother died in 1875, he joined a rough crowd, was soon arrested, committed his first murder at 18, and was killed by sheriff Pat Garrett at 21. All told, the notorious outlaw was linked to nine murders and an untold number of robberies. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
A questionable folk hero of monumental mayhem
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
Mahatma Gandhi was 61 when he exemplified fighting for a cause in a nonviolent way. In 1930, seeking Indian independence, Gandhi led the Salt March to Dandi to protest the salt tax Britain had imposed. Weighing just 99 pounds, Gandhi walked 200 miles with his followers and illegally collected a block of salt. This act set off civil disobedience throughout the country, a pivotal moment in India’s fight for independence. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Inspiring generations to use nonviolence to fight for a cause
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
My Goodreads and Amazon review of On Animals by Susan Orlean (Rated 5) – Fair Game. In the words of author Susan Orlean, On Animals is about “the subject of animals — living with them, loving them, hoarding them, using them, and how our relationship to animals says something about who and what we are.” I like animals, but with a few exceptions (cats, for sure, and well-behaved dogs), I’m not a fan of them as pets. However, I am a huge fan of Susan Orlean, whatever her topic, and she is enamored of animals, both domesticated and wild, so I had no doubt I would be drawn to her book of essays. I was not disappointed. Among my favorites are “Show Dog,” about Biff the boxer, who is nothing like the stereotypical pampered prize winner depicted in most media; “Riding High,” about the centuries-long dependability of mules for agricultural and military transport; and “The Lion Whisperer,” about a man with an uncanny ability to co-exist peacefully with the king of (vicious) beasts. I also enjoyed learning about the place-loyalty of homing pigeons, animal actors’s rights, re-wilding captive whales, and matching teams of oxen. In short, all animals and their encounters with humans are fair game for this curious and entertaining author. The last set of essays are as much about Orlean the “farmer” as about the animals who live with her in rural upstate New York: fowl (chickens, turkeys, ducks, guinea fowl), cattle, cats, and a dog. Orlean’s relationships with her domestics is affectionate but respectful; she doesn’t baby or anthropomorphize them. She is particularly fond of her chickens. When she and her husband temporarily relocate to L.A., and she must leave the chickens behind, Orlean laments, “Our backyard in California is small. Moreover, there are zillions of coyotes and bobcats hanging out in the neighborhood, and they are not the scrawny East Coast models: like everyone in Los Angeles, the coyotes I’ve seen there look like they work out a lot with personal trainers.” Eventually forced to permanently move from NY to CA, a tearful Orlean observes, “I had reveled in the animals’ friendship and their strangeness; the way they are so obvious and still so mysterious.” We might apply the same paradox to people, if we attended to them with the same dedication Orlean devotes to her menagerie. As a fiction writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I can make that claim about the (un)knowability of the characters I create. I read On Animals soon after completing my novel Elephant Angel (out January 2028), during which I too collected interesting information about human-animal relationships. Orlean’s book was a fascinating complement to what I’d learned and spurs me to discover more about the animal kingdom as experienced by us and, as we can best infer, what they in turn make of us and themselves.
A menagerie between the covers of a book
Why writers read: “Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun.” – Daniel Pinkwater
Everyone is invited to help launch my new novel Who Cares? at Ann Arbor’s Booksweet Bookstore. Set in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1960, the novel is about Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” The tale, about the struggle to age with dignity, is told through the eyes of eight memorable characters, ages 9 to 90. Read more about the book in NOVELS. Also reading are authors Maureen Aitken and Keith Hood. The event is FREE and OPEN TO ALL. Details on Booksweet’s December calendar. Register at Eventbrite. Support Booksweet, your community bookstore!
Woodruff Home for the Aged: A lively place where old people go to die
Author Ann S. Epstein writes novel, stories, memoir, poems, and essays
