Seattle author and poet Elena Louise Richmond says her book, “99 Girdles on the Wall,” is meant for anyone whoever had to wear girdles, knew someone who wore girdles or anyone who has a mother.
You can meet Richmond at a book-signing at noon Saturday at the Edmonds Bookshop.
The girdles are a metaphor for Richmond’s oppressive upbringing and her emergence from the ties that bind in her late 40s.
Richmond writes: “For her estate sale, I nailed my mother’s twenty seven girdles to the wall of her bedroom. Girdles, instruments of torture that impede the breath and imprison joy were emblematic of her repressive influence. Even when she lay dying, she had the energy to tell me to put my knees together.”
“Girdles” is available at Edmonds Bookshop and Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, as well as online from Third Place books, www.thirdplace.com. It lists at $15.95. You can find out more about Richmond and read her blog at her website, www.elenalouiserichmond.com.
The Edmonds Bookshop is at 111 Fifth Ave., Edmonds. They also will be hosting art critic Matthew Kangas during the Third Thursday Art Walk from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday. Go to their website, www.edmondsbookshop.com, or call 425-775-2789 for more information.
Herald staff
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