![]() ![]() ![]() I thank my husband, Lee, for his understanding and ceaseless commitment to Gabriel’s story and to me. It was a book I wrestled with, anguished over, wept through-and one that gave me the highest joy. It went through several drafts, all written during a time of grief in my own life. Out of it, out of that wondrous time in America, came Secret Sacrament.īut the book was not born easily. It was a rare experience, inspiring and utterly enriching. There is indescribable richness when thirty people from all over the world-from countries including Slovenia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Colombia, Ukraine, Cote d’Ivoire, Finland, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and Honduras-meet together to share stories and songs, poems and laughter, food and philosophies. I had already glimpsed the young man, hero of a new book, but I had no energy for him or his story-whatever it was to be.įrom the moment I arrived in Iowa I felt renewed. ![]() It arrived when I was burnt out by long years of laboring alone in my studio, when my creative cup was empty, and I was hungering for encouragement and company. ![]() The fellowship was one of those extraordinary gifts that comes just once in a lifetime. I had won a writing fellowship to go there to take part in the International Writing Program at the university. Secret Sacrament was conceived in October 1993, in a room in one of the residence halls of the University of Iowa, in the United States. ![]()
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