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Rachel Howard

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.rachelhoward.com

Twitter

rachelahoward

Genre

Fiction, Memoir

Member Since

January 2008

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Rachel Howard is a writer of fiction, personal essays, memoir, and dance criticism. Her debut novel, The Risk of Us, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt April 2019, and is garnering strong advance praise. Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation, calls it "An emotionally complex and amazingly suspenseful novel about love and fear." Belle Boggs, author of The Art of Waiting, says: "Rachel Howard has given us a portrait of family-building and attachment that is at once beautiful and painful, serious and funny, page-turning and insightful. I was deeply moved by this novel, a powerful reminder of the risks we take on whenever we love anyone."

Rachel’s first book was a memoir about her father's unsolved murder, The Lost Night. She ...more

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Rachel Howard My husband and I adopted a child out of the foster care system, so I was in the foster care world, and the tensions inherent to it fascinated me. I th…moreMy husband and I adopted a child out of the foster care system, so I was in the foster care world, and the tensions inherent to it fascinated me. I thought maybe I could bring the reader inside those tensions, not merely summarize them or editorialize about them. Then I saw a brochure put out by a foster services agency advertising for “Families that take risks.” I thought, That’s a strange thing to advertise for. It seemed to me the brochure was basically saying, Yeah, you need to be a little crazy to try this. In what other context would anyone say a child needs parents that take risks?

I kept going with the idea because I realized I had seen memoirs about adoption—mostly about adopting babies from overseas—and I had seen novels about foster children, but always from the foster child’s point of view. And there’s good reason for that—the foster child is the most innocent and vulnerable person in the situation. But I thought if I could write a novel from the foster parent’s point of view, it could create a triangulated space for the reader to inhabit this particular kind of adoption experience in a new way. In foster care, all the players—foster parents, social workers, psychologists—are doing their best, really, even though when you’re looking at the system from the outside the impulse is to judge all the people involved for being selfish or falling short. They’re all doing their best, but we’re talking about an inherently very difficult situation. And that’s more important than ever to remember as our country continues separating children from families at the borders—no one should be blithe about routing children to foster care. And the number of children in foster care is growing every year.
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Rachel Howard’s books

Average rating: 3.69 · 755 ratings · 124 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Risk of Us 3.67 avg rating — 577 ratings — published 2019 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Lost Night: A Daughter's Search for the Truth of Her Father's Murder 3.75 avg rating — 178 ratings — published 2005 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Rachel Howard's Blog

“auiga” by gizeh muniz vengel

Review of “auiga,” by gizeh muniz vengel in collaboration with Ernesto Peart Falcon and grisel gg torres at CounterPulse. Fjord Review. June 2024.

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Rachel is Currently Reading

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Things I Want Back From You

by Elizabeth Stix (Goodreads Author)

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Rachel Howard said: " Full disclosure, I have loved the hilarious stories in this collection since they started appearing in magazines. Ms. Stix has a wildly funny imagination. At the same time, these stories are deeply rooted in an understanding of the kinds of neuroses ...more "

Jun 16, 2024 10:42AM · see review

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Rachel Howard wrote a new blog post San Francisco Ballet “Midsummer Night’s Dream” Opening Night Review of San Francisco Ballet in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” March 2024. SF Chronicle.
Jul 08, 2024 05:29AM · like
Rachel Howard rated a book it was amazing Things I Want Back From You by Elizabeth Stix (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Full disclosure, I have loved the hilarious stories in this collection since they started appearing in magazines. Ms. Stix has a wildly funny imagination. At the same time, these stories are deeply rooted in an understanding of the kinds of neuroses ...more
Jun 16, 2024 10:39AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Things I Want Back From You by Elizabeth Stix. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Things I Want Back From You by Elizabeth Stix <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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