KRISTIN KOVACIC
Kristin Kovacic was born and lives in Pittsburgh, PA, where she has taught for twenty years, currently at Winchester Thurston School. Her essays have won the Pushcart Prize and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship, among other awards, and have appeared in Brain, Child, Full Grown People, and other publications. She is the co-editor of Birth: A Literary Companion and the author of the poetry chapbook, House of Women.
History of My Breath
HISTORY OF MY BREATH attempts to trap the fugitive knowledge of the durable adventures—childhood, marriage, childbirth, parenting. In personal essays spanning thirty years of breathing and brooding, Kovacic explores the intersections of love and pain that release the surprising lessons of family life, a life lived, as she calls it, “abundantly accompanied.” What are the wages for the work of love? What costs? How do you navigate the radical proximity of others—of children, spouses, friends, parents—without blurring the fragile outline of the self? With wonder, candor, and a sidelong eye, Kristin Kovacic breathes new life into some of the world’s oldest subjects.
“Kristin Kovacic hits all my favorite notes in this collection: thought-provoking, funny, and touching, by turns. This isn’t a book where you can find the best part—it’s all the best part.”—Jennifer Niesslein
“Urgent, lovely, and insightful, these essays lead the reader on a search for meaning, through birth, marriage, parenthood, death, and everything in between. A beautiful book.”—Julie Schumacher
