Jenny Bartoy is a French American writer, critic, and editor based in the Pacific Northwest.
Her new book,
No Contact, is an anthology about family estrangement. Ocean Vuong called it "a landmark work."
Bartoy writes essays, author profiles and interviews, and book reviews. Her work appears in a variety of publications, including
The Boston Globe,
The Seattle Times,
The Rumpus,
CrimeReads,
Chicago Review of Books,
Under the Gum Tree,
Room, and
Hippocampus Magazine, and in literary anthologies such as
Sharp Notions: Essays from the Stitching Life.
At Lit Hub Bartoy tagged
ten great memoirs that explore "the realities of [family] estrangement with the vulnerability and nuance it deserves, providing a powerful counterpoint to pervasive and reductive sociocultural talking points." One title on the list:
Daria Burke, Of My Own Making
Burke grew up in poverty and neglect, then, estranged from her long-addicted mother and absent father, went on to become an award-winning fashion executive and 
keynote speaker. Of My Own Making opens when, after a decade of productive therapy, Burke discovers a photo of the car accident that took her beloved grandmother’s life, and thirty years of unprocessed grief and trauma come tumbling out. In this thoughtful memoir, Burke dives into the science of neuroplasticity, epigenetics, and early childhood brain development as she seeks to process her past and forge her destiny on her own terms. Throughout, she doesn’t waver on her estrangement, instead asserting firm boundaries that put the onus on her parents to address their problematic behavior, but the wounds of her upbringing haunt her. Feeling shame from craving love and connection, she writes, “This neglect wasn’t just the absence of care—it was the presence of a pervasive belief that I was unworthy of it.” Part rags-to-riches narrative, part healing strategy, this memoir is foremost a story of determination, at first a brave drive to overcome and succeed despite the odds, then later a methodological rewriting of her own brain, to reclaim the life she deserves. Burke’s memoir is a beautiful and hopeful reminder that while trauma changes the brain, so does healing.
Read about
another entry on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
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