Old Enough

This beautiful collection of essays captures the process of aging from multiple points of view. Its wise writers can help us all navigate aging with courage, wisdom, and joy.

* author of A Life in Light *

The spark may start early, but the real fireworks in late-life artists explode with the focus of age. Couldn't they have done it earlier? If this or that had happened in their lives, couldn't they have made their art when young? The answer is a resounding 'No.' Experience leads to experiment. 'What-others-want-me-to-do' fades in the glow of the finally acknowledged inner drive that fosters the brilliance of at last being splendidly Old Enough.

* author of The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72 *

Old Enough is an extraordinary collection of observations, musings, and hard-earned insights about creativity and aging from an equally extraordinary group of diverse, bold, and brilliant women writers and artists—women who once blazed their own trail and now pause to reflect on the journey. Carolyn Sherer's stunningly beautiful photographs of the contributors, which accompany each piece, are not only a delightful surprise but also a creative touch which adds an intimacy and truth to the individual stories. This is a book to cherish, to hold close and contemplate, then to recommend to others: this one is a must-read. Whether their own journey is just beginning or in progress, they will thank you for it.

* award-winning author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy *

This book is a gift! It confronts clichéd thinking about 'women of a certain age' with grace, humor, and candor. The idea that our creative pursuits can continue to nurture the best in ourselves and others, especially as we age, is inspirational. As a working journalist, mother, wife, and daughter (and Southerner) who has just rounded sixty, I want to thank these remarkable women for sharing their beautiful stories and encouraging us to embrace the now, and beyond.

In Old Enough, twenty-one creative women 'of a certain age'—writers, painters, sculptors, a quilter, a photographer, and a singer-songwriter, ages 57–87—share their stories about aging, illness, caretaking, and loss, and permission to carry 'play' from their childhoods into their adult and older lives. There are amazing essays here, about following your obsessions but keeping your balance, and about redefining, redoing, and finding purpose beyond the roles and structures we’ve used to keep ourselves safe. It’s all here, y’all—wisdom captured in prose that flows like honey while cutting through tough topics with literary candor.

* editor of A Second Blooming: Becoming the Women We Are Meant to Be and Southern Writers on Writing *

A work of art to be enjoyed and learned from in parts or as a whole. We listen eagerly to a familiar piece of music. We revisit a favorite painting. We search our shelves for the book that holds a particular passage. This is the manner in which I plan to look again and again into Old Enough, seeking joy and nuance revealed afresh.

* Arts ATL /Atlanta Journal-Constituti