Born in 1940s Brooklyn to a father prone to rages and an emotionally erratic mother, Vivian Conan grew up in two different worlds: Outside and Inside. Outside, she had friends, excelled in school, and was close to her cousins and brother. Inside, she saw faces that weren't hers in her bedroom mirror and was surrounded by an invisible Atmosphere that bathed her in the love and understanding she craved. Moving between these worlds enabled Vivian to survive her childhood but limited her ability to live fully as an adult. To others, her life seemed rich with work, friends, music, and boyfriends. But her mind and soul were filled with chaos and pain. Neither she nor her therapists could figure out why. LOSING THE ATMOSPHERE is Vivian Conan's riveting account of her journey toward self-understanding and wholeness; her encounters with a string of more and less helpful therapists; and her unconventional relationship with the therapist who was finally able to guide her through the courageous, messy work healing required. Told with honesty, humor, and grace, LOSING THE ATMOSPHERE is a never-too-late story about the growth possible for anyone with the guts to pursue it, and a testament to the redemptive power of love: not the perfect kind Vivian experienced in her imaginary world, but the imperfect kind that connects us, flawed human being to flawed human being, in the real world she lives in now.
Despite years of dominating journalism school classrooms across North America, women remain vastly underrepresented at the highest levels of newspaper leadership. Why do so many female journalists leave the industry and so few reach the top? Interviewing female journalists at daily newspapers across Canada, Vivian Smith who spent fourteen years atThe Globe and Mail as a reporter, editor, and manager finds that many of the obstacles that women face in the newspaper industry are the same now as they have been historically, made worse by the challenging times in which the industry finds itself. The youngest fear they will have to choose between a career and a family; mid-career women madly juggle the pressures of work and family while worrying that they are not good mothers; and the most senior reflect on decades of accomplishments mixed with frustration at newsroom sexism that has held them back. Listening carefully to the stories these journalists tell, both about themselves and about what they write, Smith reveals inOutsiders Still how overt hostility to women in the newsroom has been replaced by systemic inequality that limits or ends the careers of many female journalists. Despite decades of contributions to society's news agenda, women print journalists are outsiders still.
Here, There and Elsewhere, Vivian Smith's first new collection in five years, may well be his most personal book. Drawing on his life in Hobart and Sydney, travels in Europe and South America and literary figures he has known or written about, the poems refer to present day politics as well as past events, and wonder what the future holds for our country. They explore the Ern Malley affair, from the perspective of the perpetrators of the hoax, offer postcards from Capri, and snapshots of urban life, alongside extended autobiographical prose poems, all quietly-spoken, but packing a surprising punch.
Ronald Vivian Smith is an author of personal experiences – a rare breed to find in a time when even journalists hesitate to put pen to paper without scanning through the internet. A definitive voice when it comes to some known and unknown tales and an inspiration to a new generation of city-scribes, Smith is a master-chronicler of Delhi’s myriad realities. Among the capital’s most ardent lovers, Smith believes in the power of observation and interaction. His travels across Delhi, most often in a DTC bus, examine the big and small curiosities – seamlessly juxtaposing the past with the present. Be it the pride he encounters in the hutments of one of Chandni Chowk’s age-old beggar families, or his ambling walks around Delhi’s now-dilapidated cemeteries, Smith paints with his words a city full of magic and history. This anthology features short essays on the Indian sultanate, its fall after the British Raj, and its resurrection to become what it is today – the National Capital Territory of Delhi. ‘No amount of bookish knowledge can compete with the sort of insights and real, lived memories he [Smith] has.’ —Rakshanda Jalil, LiveMint ‘… When it comes to writing on monuments of Delhi – known, little known or unknown – no one does a better job than R.V. Smith.’ —Khushwant Singh, Hindustan Times
OLD HIRAM... recites poetry of our Appalachian heritage. Numerous photos enhance many of the poems which depict yesteryear in the hills of the mountain state.
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