Ferne: A Detroit Story by Barbara Henning (signed)
The work is billed as a “novelized” biography—which I imagine is due to the dramatization of events that might not have happened exactly as written, but I think of it as biographical memoir—because the writer speaks of her own story, as well. So, it’s not solely a biography of her mother—and it’s that intersection that draws in the reader. — Gerry Lipshultz, from a review inThe Rupture
Read the introduction and chapter five from Ferne: A Detroit Story published in Threefold.
“Ferne is a time capsule of mid-century Detroit, a city poised to explode. Its sounds, scents, and sights spill forth, as vividly experienced by a vibrant young woman whose life would end too soon. Ferne joyously curates her own life; that’s the heart of this book. But we also encounter her through the fervent eyes of her daughter, poet and novelist Barbara Henning, who lyrically fills in and fleshes out the social contours and details of the ghostly presence that haunts these pages. Through her daughter’s skilled hands, Ferne comes to life again on these pages, bringing with her glimpses of the city she loved so deeply.” –John Hartigan, Jr
“Barbara Henning has composed a Valentine to her mother, Ferne, whose tragic young life she recreates with loving detail and an eye for family romance. The resulting immediacy gives these American proletarian figures their due, whether in the shadow of war, death or everyday living. This memoir’s fundamental power lies in breaking open memory’s dam with a heart-language that makes space for what is, after all, our common lot.”
— Chris Tysh
“Barbara Henning is an indomitable writer, thinker, traveler and a stalwart weaver of the threads through the heart centers and margins of her own existence. This is a daughter’s complicated love story of a mother and a city and a time before we knew more than we thought to know. A poignant tribute of what haunts the premises in all the fractures and layers in the souls of America. A brilliant—and in a strange way—a most timely intervention.” –Anne Waldman
Barbara Henning was born in Detroit in 1948. She is the author of four novels and eight collections of poetry, as well as many chapbooks and essays. Her recent books include a hybrid biography of her mother, Ferne, a Detroit Story (Spuyten Duyvil 2022); a novel, Just Like That (SD 2018); poetry collections, Digigram (United Artist Books, 2020) and A Day Like Today (Negative Capability Press 2015). She’s also the editor of a book of interviews, Looking Up Harryette Mullen (2011), The Selected Prose of Bobbie Louise Hawkins (2012), and Prompt Book: Experiments for Writing Poetry and Fiction (2020). Barbara presently lives in Brooklyn, where she is Professor Emerita at Long Island University. For more information: https://barbarahenning.com/
Ferne, a Detroit Story is published by Spuyten Duyvil, 2022, 338 pps., numerous black and white family photos (Snaps) and Detroit newspaper illustrations, new in paperbound wraps and signed by the author.
$ 22.00
