Community Corner
Tanya Ward Goodman, author of "Leaving Tinkertown" and special guests Elizabeth Aquino and Helena Lipstadt Reading at Stories Books
Tanya Ward Goodman
is the author of Leaving Tinkertown, published by The University of New
Mexico Press. Her writing has appeared in numerous places including the Los Angeles Times, Brain, Child, The Huffington Post and Literary
Mama.
Helena Lipstadt lives in Los Angeles. Her two poetry chapbooks are Leave Me Signs and If My Heart Were a Desert and
her poems and short stories have appeared in Bridges, The Rattling
Wall, Sinister Wisdom, among others. She designs native plant gardens
and plays ukulele.
Elizabeth Aquino
is a writer living in Los Angeles. She has three children, the oldest
of whom has severe epilepsy and developmental disabilities. She is the
inspiration for much of Elizabeth’s writing and her general levels of
insanity. Her two teenaged boys contribute the rest. In the vast swathes of spare time, she bakes and decorates cakes, an activity that ties her
to her former life as a pastry chef.
About Leaving Tinkertown:
When Tanya Ward Goodman came home to New Mexico to visit her dad at the end of 1996, he was
fifty-five years old and just beginning to show symptoms of the Alzheimer’s disease that would kill him six years later. Early onset
dementia is a shock and a challenge to every family, but the Wards were not an ordinary family. Ross Ward was an eccentric artist and collector
whose unique museum, Tinkertown, brought visitors from all over the
world to the Sandia Mountains outside Albuquerque. In this book Tanya
tells Ross’s story and her own, sharing the tragedy and the unexpected
comedy of caring for this funny, stubborn man who remained a talented
artist even as he changed before his family’s eyes.
”This
memoir is a lovely rendering of the pain and difficulty involved in
watching a beloved parent succumb to Alzheimer’s Disease. But more
subtly and importantly, it’s about the benefits and detriments of an
eccentric childhood. Tanya Ward Goodman writes about both subjects with
full sincerity and great humor.”
–Neal Pollack, author of Alternadad and Stretch
“Leaving Tinkertown will crack you up, make you cry, grip your heart, and move you to live to the absolute hilt.
–Heather King, author of Parched and Shirt of Flame
is the author of Leaving Tinkertown, published by The University of New
Mexico Press. Her writing has appeared in numerous places including the Los Angeles Times, Brain, Child, The Huffington Post and Literary
Mama.
Helena Lipstadt lives in Los Angeles. Her two poetry chapbooks are Leave Me Signs and If My Heart Were a Desert and
her poems and short stories have appeared in Bridges, The Rattling
Wall, Sinister Wisdom, among others. She designs native plant gardens
and plays ukulele.
Elizabeth Aquino
is a writer living in Los Angeles. She has three children, the oldest
of whom has severe epilepsy and developmental disabilities. She is the
inspiration for much of Elizabeth’s writing and her general levels of
insanity. Her two teenaged boys contribute the rest. In the vast swathes of spare time, she bakes and decorates cakes, an activity that ties her
to her former life as a pastry chef.
About Leaving Tinkertown:
When Tanya Ward Goodman came home to New Mexico to visit her dad at the end of 1996, he was
fifty-five years old and just beginning to show symptoms of the Alzheimer’s disease that would kill him six years later. Early onset
dementia is a shock and a challenge to every family, but the Wards were not an ordinary family. Ross Ward was an eccentric artist and collector
whose unique museum, Tinkertown, brought visitors from all over the
world to the Sandia Mountains outside Albuquerque. In this book Tanya
tells Ross’s story and her own, sharing the tragedy and the unexpected
comedy of caring for this funny, stubborn man who remained a talented
artist even as he changed before his family’s eyes.
”This
memoir is a lovely rendering of the pain and difficulty involved in
watching a beloved parent succumb to Alzheimer’s Disease. But more
subtly and importantly, it’s about the benefits and detriments of an
eccentric childhood. Tanya Ward Goodman writes about both subjects with
full sincerity and great humor.”
–Neal Pollack, author of Alternadad and Stretch
“Leaving Tinkertown will crack you up, make you cry, grip your heart, and move you to live to the absolute hilt.
–Heather King, author of Parched and Shirt of Flame
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