If it Stings

Just eight miles from the gleaming LDS temple in Salt Lake City-colloquially called "Mormon Central"-lies the sleepy town of Holladay, Utah.

It's from there that a story emerged. It began with a young Mormon family and ended much like it began-with a song and a lulla-goodbye.

From award-winning poet and novelist, J.A. Carter-Winward, comes her deepest excavation yet, available on Kindle, and in limited-edition chapbook.

A Utah native, Carter-Winward explores family life, with all its stings and comforts, delving into the deep fissures and cracks that have formed behind the white-picket fences of the American middleclass. Centered on her unique, yet ordinary Mormon family, Carter-Winward uses her distinctive narrative-style poetry to give us a profoundly intimate portrayal of family life that both comforts and disturbs. Each piece pays tribute, sings a requiem, and speaks to anyone and everyone who grew up believing in the American Dream.

Sweet like honey, but it stings, a little, too. That's all right. "Like Dad used to say, 'if it stings... that means it's working.'"