AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, SHERI BOOKER, RELEASES NINE YEARS UNDER IN PAPERBACK. |
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TAKES BEAUTY OF COMING OF AGE MESSAGE ACROSS THE COUNTRY
BALTIMORE, MD - Sheri Booker, author of award-winning memoir NINE YEARS UNDER, hopes the release of the paperback version of her book this week will create a resurgence of interest amongst the chief population she is trying to reach - youth. And its not just because the paperback version is almost nine dollars more affordable.
"Much like the mutable qualities of a paperback book, young people of a certain age are still trying to figure out who they are, who they want to be and how flexible they can become" she says. "It just so happens that I came of age by answering some of those questions in a place that no one would have thought of - an inner city funeral home in Baltimore. And at the age of 15!" Booker began working at Wylie Funeral home as an intern in 1997. She admits that initially she was tentative about the choice. Soon, however, she was running the funeral home, and did so for seven years. This, she says, was partly achieved by her willingness to exercise a trait that is characteristic of millennials today - to jump in. “Booker’s descriptions of her experiences of loss, dating and coming of age are interesting, but it’s her revelations about the daily workings of a funeral home in a poor urban setting that are transfixing.” |
So on the heels of winning awards, enjoying robust book sales, and getting on the recommended reading lists of a gazillion colleges and universities in the region, Booker has come of age as an author, too. She's taking her message to the masses both in words that are written and spoken - speaking to young people all over the country about her experiences. And in the process she is teaching them about the tremendous value and beauty can be found in the impermeable.
"When I began my work for Wylie funeral home in Baltimore, I did not know what I would encounter exactly. I just knew that the pain of losing my great aunt was too much to bear. I needed a distraction," she says. "And over the years that I worked there, with all of its melodramas, I found more than a distraction. I found myself." This flexibility is hallmark of today's generation, according to Booker. It is also a sign of success. While enjoying breakfast on a sunny morning she quips the story of a friend who had become settled in her career as an attorney but who suddenly decided to start all over, move to another city on a whim, and share an apartment with ten (almost) other people in an effort to see her dream of becoming a fashion designer come to fruition. "See now THAT'S what I'm talking about," she says, eyes gleaming with possibilities. "When you place a paperback in your pocketbook, you never know where it will wind up. And if it's the pocketbook of a millenial, that story of life may very well begin where you never expected it would." Sheri Booker is available for speaking engagements. Book her (pun intended) buy her book, and follow her on: Twitter:@sherijbooker. www.nineyearsunder.com www.sheribooker.com |
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