Printmaker's Daughter, Painter's Wife

Guernica World Editions (GWE Creative Non-Fiction)

9781771837293

366 pages | June 1, 2022

Nina Barragan is not just a printmaker’s daughter and a painter’s wife, and her exquisite, intimate book is no mere memoir. Underneath the placidly ironic title, she explores the ways we sketch our illusions in life and fiction, as she takes her reader on a luminously insightful and captivating journey of a woman's self-scrutiny. Barragan is a quietly forceful writer, and her arresting tale teases strands of untamed memories into stories of displacement, erasure, duality, authenticity and the desire for transformation. This is the true art of writing: on the surface and deep underneath.

Ksenija Bilbija, Professor, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Nina Barragan's memoir is a deftly stitched quilt of many colours, a rich evocation of a writer's formation and a thought-provoking meditation on the roots of creativity.

The Printmaker's Daughter, Painter's Wife juxtaposes various personal experiences while also weaving in a few short fiction pieces, demonstrating how life often informs art.

Laura Farmer, The Cedar Rapids Gazette

An intricate tapestry of family life that spans both continents and decades. Barragan is a master of the small, telling detail, lovingly recalled and deftly woven into the story. Hers is a wise and generous vision; to experience the world as she describes it is to come away enriched.

Yona Zeldis McDonough, Fiction Editor, Lilith Magazine

This is a book packed with heartfelt reflections and intimate biographical nuggets which will enrich students of printing history for many years to come, while also providing food for thought for wordsmiths of every variety, professional and amateur alike. Barragan's writing is to be savoured from the very first page to the last.

Martin Davies, The Barbary Press, Ibiza, Spain

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International Book Awards for Creative Non-Fiction