#AWW 2019 Ashleigh Young

• Author:  Ashleigh Young
  
• Title: Can You Tolerate This?
  
• Published: 2016
  
• Genre: essays
• List of Challenges 2019
• Monthly plan
• #AWW2019
• @AusWomenWriters

 

• Trivia: Shortlist Rathbones Folio Prize 2019
• Trivia:  Yale University Windham-Campbell prize 2017
  
• Trivia: Ockham New Zealand Book Award (NF)  2017
• Trivia: Adam Foundation Prize Creative Writing 2017

 

Conclusion:

 

Bones

1. This would not have been my choice to start an essay collection.
2. Topic was not a good hook...not funny or emotional
3. …just a bit strange.

 

Witches

1. Story took me back to the carefree summer days on a beach.
2. I can’t remember the last time
3. …I jumped into the ocean….how sad is that?

 

The Te Kūiti Underground

1. Absolutely enchanting…author’s memories of her father.
2. “…he became in my eyes more and more eccentric,
3. …and I became  more narrow-minded.”

 

Postie

1. Just a story that leaves the reader
2. with a message from an eccentric French postman:
3. “ …how wonderful it is if we just keep going
4. …a simple stumbling block…can change
5. the entire story of out lives and deaths.”
6. #SmileOnMyFace

 

On Any Walk

1. Once I start a walk…I never turn back.
2. I just remember how far I’ve come
3. .How much distance would be wasted
4. …if I turn back?
5. Once I’m home …the coffee tastes so special!
6. Ashleigh Young will…
7. #NeverGiveUp

 

Big Red

1. I’m speechless….
2. We are introduced tp author’s family
3. …mom, dad and 2 brothers.
4. Ashleigh Young is an amazing talent
5. …..one of the BEST essays.

 

Window Seat

1. We’ve all been there
2. …on a plane with a talkative passenger next to us.
3. Only this passenger….could she be and angel?
4. #Spooky

 

Black Dog Book

1. What you possess…you loose.
2. Happy family dog story….but sometimes 
3. Mom has to make the difficult decision
4. …and call the vet.
5. #HardToSayGoodbye

 

Katherine Would Approve

1. Anecdotes about the period when
2. Ashleigh Young was director of 
3. Katherine Mansfield Birthplace House
4. …in Wellington, New Zealand.
5. #Job

 

Wolfman

1. What to do when a harmless comment stings?
2. #ThinkBeforeYouSpeak

 

Can You Tolerate This?

1. After reading this essay I had to close my Kindle
2. take off my glasses and close my eyes.
3. #PowerfulWriting
4. …one of the BEST essays

 

Seas of Trees

1. Eye-opener about a disturbing
2. …social trend in Japan: hikikomori.
3. Creative young people becoming modern-day hermits.
4. #PTSS

 

Bikram’s Knee

1. If you are determined to find a way back to strength
2. nothing is unfix-able.
3. This is a very, very personal essay about Ashleigh’s
4. Struggle to accept the awkwardness of her body.
5. She keeps waiting on the  gym bench, elbows on her knees
6. head in her hand
7. .…waiting for transformation.
8. #Yoga #Running
9. ….one of the BEST essays.

 

Unveiling

1. The author visits a Maori ritual
2. …unveiling a headstone of a family member.
3. She will write a story to
4. accompany the photographs her friend is taking.

 

On Breathing

1. So funny about a simple decision
2. ,,,author decides to breath noisily
3. …when she feels puffed 
4. during a taxing bike ride.
5. #Quirky

 

On Going Away

1. Insightful look at relationships…
2. Going away and then coming back together
3. …this surge of
4. anger and relief is toxic.
5. Solution:  compress it into one moment
6. …like stepping into a manhole.
7. A sharp, pure accident with a beginning and an end.
8. #Insightful

 

Anemone

1. Heartwrenching…to try to reach into the past
2. and hold on to some one…
3. …to try and stop time.
4. #Depression

 

Lark

1. Heartwarming observations and anecdotes
2. about a woman who decides
3. …to write a book  about her life.
4. The story is clearly referring to
5. …Ashleigh Young’s mother.
6. #Hysterical
7. ...one of the BEST essays.

 

 

Last thoughts:

1. Extremely well-written set of essays
2. …in quiet, elegant joy-to-read prose.
3. External circumstances
4. …family, job, body shape or where you live..
5. cannot determine your happiness.
6. Ashleigh Young shows us
7. happiness depends on what we are given.
8. This a book  best read ‘slowly’…
9. I was not ready to say goodbye…
10. ..to Ashleigh Young’s beautiful writing.
11. I’m anxiously waiting for her next book!
12. #MustRead

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