IMWA BOOKSTORE
The IMWA Bookstore showcases the remarkable work of our members and guest speakers from around the world. Browse compelling memoirs, personal narratives, and inspiring stories—and discover new voices you’ll love.
Sarah Vosburgh has often felt misunderstood by her mother, a woman who lived a quintessential suburban life. But when her mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Sarah’s world unravels, and she must confront a disease that will only worsen.
As roles reverse between mother and daughter, Sarah faces the guilt of making decisions she hopes are the right ones while also carrying the grief of losing her mom bit by bit every day. She navigates a labyrinth of health services amid the heartbreaking, and at times darkly humorous, realities of caregiving.
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A book of small rescues against despair. In this deftly comedic and deeply contemplative memoir, the New York Times bestselling author faces life’s biggest curveball only to find resilience in the most unlikely places.
After Annabelle Gurwitch received an out-of-the blue diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer, an existential dread set in. Precision medicine offered a temporary reprieve—but instead of turning into a cancer warrior, Annabelle declared herself a cancer slacker. Her motto: no runs, no ribbons, no religion. Told with her signature wit, warmth, and gimlet eye, Gurwitch draws inspiration from Greek mythology and TV comedies, Kermit the Frog and Samuel Beckett.
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Told with heart and grit, honesty and wisdom, You’ll Forget This Ever Happened is the poignant story not only of Laura Engel but of thousands of young women in the 1960s who were made to relinquish their newborns simply because there was no ring on their finger.
Family secrets and the lifelong damage those secrets caused carry us along unexpected paths in this triumphant story of redemption and forgiveness. This award-winning book will break your heart and exhilarate your spirit. Engel’s prose is lyrical and her storytelling magical. This memoir is endearing and heartwarming. Reviewers agree this book is a treasure.
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A refreshing solution to unlocking creativity that challenges the conventional mindset rooted in a hustle and comparison culture through the ancient practice of mindfulness.
Drawing on over two hundred studies that reveal how mindfulness calms the mind, enhances focus, reduces anxiety, and fosters self-compassion, this practical book empowers readers to cultivate an abundant space for creativity to flourish. At a time when creativity is the most sought-after skill in the workforce, yet 75% of Americans feel they are not realizing their creative potential, author Marni Freedman shares her infectious enthusiasm and global insights gleaned from experiences as diverse as Buddhist farmers in Maui to fire dancers at Burning Man. By exploring the three natural states of being: Allow, Trust, and Play, readers will learn to release toxic attitudes, tap into endless ideas, and redefine sharing as play, ultimately becoming creatively resilient.
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This book is recounted in chapters — one for each place the author lived. Most of the locations are global. Four of them involved assignments with her family of origin: Paris, Léopoldville, Accra, and Casablanca.
Two were on her own: Rome and her first stint in Geneva. The last two were in Manila and back in Geneva with her family by marriage. Each relocation — to disparate countries at different stages of her life — presented new sets of challenges. Her book reveals how she tackled these challenges and how she felt — and continues to feel — at home almost anywhere but with nowhere to truly call home.
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An appalling act of violence and an unsolved double-murder. Small-town investigative reporter Shelby Day is determined to hunt a killer. As her search draws closer to uncovering the twisted truth, she begins receiving ominous warnings to stay quiet and drop the story.
The young journalist is in danger. Her charming cameraman and best friend, a person with his own secret past, says he wants to protect her. She can’t allow anyone to distract her as she fights for the two women who deserve justice. She never expects along the way she’ll have to stop and save herself. Ticktock… If Shelby doesn’t solve the crime soon, she’ll become the killer’s next victim.
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Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner, 2026. Finalist for the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award in Nonfiction. On September 6, 1970, twenty-year-old Mimi Nichter was on a flight home to New York from a summer in Israel when armed members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine crash-landed her plane in a remote desert in Jordan.
Passengers were held on board for six days in sweltering heat without flushable toilets or running water. Most were sent home, but Mimi—accused of being an Israeli soldier—and thirty-one others were held hostage in Amman, fearing for their lives as a violent civil war erupted around them.
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The International Memoir Writers Association is thrilled to present the sixth volume of compelling true stories from our annual Memoir Showcase contest. This volume’s winning selections are inspired by the theme, What Just Happened?
This engaging and entertaining volume is filled with stories, such as a little Iranian girl in Tehran watching the U.S. hostage crisis unfold on TV, a teenager in Germany who learns how fast life can change in seven-point-nine seconds, and a young woman tripping on acid who meets her birth father for the first time. In the spirit of the Shaking the Tree series, this anthology goes there unapologetically.
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