We All Come Home Alive

A candid and lyrical reckoning that unites loss and joy. Wise and beautifully written – Sinéad Gleeson, author of CONSTELLATIONSExtraordinary: messy and beautiful and true. It made me cry – Melissa Harrison, author of ALL AMONG THE BARLEYFierce and tender essays that made me feel that I too was more alive … Beecher’s writing on pregnancy, labour and motherhood is searingly good, and the way she writes about loss and grief moved me to tears more than once – Lucy Caldwell, author of OPENINGSIntelligent, poised and emotionally exacting. Beecher’s evocative essays on life’s defining moments unpick how we might be made and remade by life – Cal Flyn, author of ISLANDS OF ABANDONMENTI could NOT put this down. We All Come Home Alive is an intricate and tender weave of girlhood, growing pains, and what it means to live inside our bodies. It’s an utterly perfect book and Anna Beecher is a revelation – Lucy Rose, author of THE LAMBAnna Beecher’s beautiful memoir, written partly in response to the death of her brother, describes in startling detail the highs and lows of existence … Beecher isa gifted writer with a knack forcapturing the exquisite detail of intense emotions without beingsentimental, and for rendering the familiar tropes of griefstartling … Pain, joy, love, fear: these are the gifts and burdens of life, and in this profoundly affecting book, Beecher has articulated them with precision and beauty * Observer *A bravely written and uplifting book, which locates power in the tiniest detail * Irish Independent *What Beecher does truly brilliantly is paint vignettes of her past. The search for her husband’s lost wedding ring, which a scuba diver miraculously scoops up from the silt and grime at the bottom of a deep rock pool is expertly recounted, and the graphic description she gives of her daughter’s birth is gripping in its candidness * The Times *

Anna Beecher’s work is about love. She is interested in dignity, rebellion and lives shaped by loss. She is a graduate of the Fiction MFA at the University of Virginia and a winner of the $10,000 Henfield Prize for Fiction. Anna has written widely for theatre and performance and her work has been presented by venues including Lincoln Centre, Southbank Centre and the Barbican. She teaches creative prose writing at the University of Virginia.