The Library Love Fest Team is excited to welcome Arielle Estoria, author of The Unfolding, to the blog for a guest post!
More about The Unfolding (on sale 3/7/23): In this beautiful collection of poems, essays, and meditations, Arielle Estoria tenderly reveals the places in her life where she has been broken open and mended back together in new ways. In doing so, she shows each of us how when we walk through our own process of “unfolding,” though it may be uncomfortable at times, there is light on the other side. Let these words guide your soul, and return home to the person you were always meant to be.
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So many of my pivotal memories as a child and a youth were created in the bookshelves of a library. Spending Saturday mornings tucked away in a corner not many ventured to, holding whatever book bound adventure I was devouring that day in my hands. The library helped me dream, create, escape all at once. It was a portal to a dimension outside of my present reality and into a space where I could be the detective or the damsel without the distress or the heroine or even the villain when I so chose to be. There was something that a trip to the library always offered: the realm of possibility. There are no limits when entering the sacred world of books, the stories of so many cradled between wooden hugs.
The accessibility of a library is one that will never not be necessary. Not everyone is able to afford a handful of book purchases a month or a year. The opportunity that libraries offer to learning the sacred art of borrowing and returning is a vital memory I personally have on practicing responsibility and trust. Though never perfectly executed because I also vividly remember my mother reprimanding us many times for keeping books for way too long, or hoarding too many under our beds to reach for when we needed to settle or activate our minds.
Now I think back on these core memories, as an adult who has fully entered, embraced, and owned her creative titles as poet, author, actor, and storyteller it is a beautiful realization to play part in the wonders of a library. To be able to contribute to other youth or adult persons experiencing the captivating, life-shaping deep connection to the books on the seemingly infinite shelves, where they can be reminded not only of who they are but who they can be, is a great honor and one I do not take lightly.
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Thank you, Arielle! We are so appreciative of your thoughtful words, and are very excited for readers to experience The Unfolding.
Learn more on Edelweiss+, and watch the book trailer for The Unfolding here:
-Grace
