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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher |
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BRACE FOR IMPACT
A Memoir
An exciting memoir, a crash course in the brutal, big-hearted world of roller derby, told through the unforgettable story of one young woman's fight to find her place in the world. Set in St. Louis, Gabe's story upends the traditional narrative of lgbtq+ people finding community only in liberal cities, and gives voice to the experience of making a home and creating chosen family.
Gabe Montesanti grew up queer in a working-class, conservative Catholic family in the Midwest, where she was taught to prioritize strength and impenetrability over vulnerability and honesty. In this emotionally, physically, and spiritually abusive environment, she developed a severe eating disorder, never learned to trust herself, and lived in constant fear. As she enters graduate school, she vows to put the trauma of her past behind her and to learn to fully inhabit her body. So, she decides to join Arch Rival Roller Derby in St. Louis, one of the top-rated teams in the country, and instantly falls in love with the roughness, intensity, and roller derby's open embrace of people who are literally and figuratively scarred. Gabe soon finds community, safety, and a sense of belonging, reveling in the queer-friendly environment, the tattoos, glitter, and campiness. She chooses the derby name Joan of Spark, modeling herself after the fierce and independent Joan of Arc, to signify all the ways she's left behind the baggage of her childhood.
But when Gabe suffers a catastrophic injury, her unresolved trauma catches up to her. In the aftermath of her accident, it becomes impossible for her to ignore how the physicality of roller derby mirrors the emotional violence of her upbringing. Gabe's arduous physical recovery is matched only by the painful process of beginning to heal her emotional wounds. Forced to reckon with her past, she must decide if she can try to channel her Joan of Spark away from roller derby and shift herself into a bolder, future, one more true to herself.
Gabe earned her BA in mathematics and studio art from Kalamazoo College and her MFA in creative nonfiction from Washington University in St. Louis. She serves as a mentor for the PEN Prison Writing Program, teaches creating writing at St. Louis Community College and the Loft Literary Center, and has had work published in Belt Magazine, Brevity, The Offing, and Boulevard Magazine. Her piece "The Worldwide Roller Derby Convention" was recognized as a notable essay in The Best American Essays. And indeed, she still skates for Arch Rival Roller Derby in St. Louis under the name of Joan of Spark!
But when Gabe suffers a catastrophic injury, her unresolved trauma catches up to her. In the aftermath of her accident, it becomes impossible for her to ignore how the physicality of roller derby mirrors the emotional violence of her upbringing. Gabe's arduous physical recovery is matched only by the painful process of beginning to heal her emotional wounds. Forced to reckon with her past, she must decide if she can try to channel her Joan of Spark away from roller derby and shift herself into a bolder, future, one more true to herself.
Gabe earned her BA in mathematics and studio art from Kalamazoo College and her MFA in creative nonfiction from Washington University in St. Louis. She serves as a mentor for the PEN Prison Writing Program, teaches creating writing at St. Louis Community College and the Loft Literary Center, and has had work published in Belt Magazine, Brevity, The Offing, and Boulevard Magazine. Her piece "The Worldwide Roller Derby Convention" was recognized as a notable essay in The Best American Essays. And indeed, she still skates for Arch Rival Roller Derby in St. Louis under the name of Joan of Spark!
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Book
Published 2022-05-24 by Dial Press |