From BroadwayWorld … https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwbooks/article/Hoosier-Author-Susie-Duncan-Sextons-Works-Published-In-Dearborn-Public-Librarys-Tree-Anthology-Book-20210305

Hoosier author Susie Sexton is featured in the Henry Ford Centennial Library “Big Read” Tree Anthology. The book is available for purchase on Amazon. Sexton’s work was published in the organization’s prior three “Big Read” collections Call of the Wild Dearborn: Animal Tales (also providing the photographic cover art), Dreaming Dreams No Mortal Ever Dared to Dream Before, and What’s In A Name? The program has been running since 2015, and Sexton has been included in each edition.

Sexton has three essays in the book: “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” a poignant and funny reflection on the healing effects of the sun and the relentless passage of time; “All We Know of Heaven,” assessing the divisive effects of modern political discourse; and “Compassion Does Contain the Word Passion,” reviewing the conflict of commerce and nature and the importance of attending to our planet’s needs.

“Writing heals my soul. It has offered me a safe harbor from which to reflect on a life fully lived, on the influences and history of living in Columbia City, Indiana for the bulk of my life, on my appreciation for my kind and gracious parents Roy and Edna Duncan, on my love of movies and theatre and animals, and on my interests in the environment and political life and the intersection of the two,” Sexton observes. 

“I’ve been fortunate over the past twenty years to have others take an interest in my thoughts, to be able to publish across a wide spectrum of outlets, and to have the support of my son Roy Sexton. I’ve dubbed him ‘Maxwell Perkins,’ the editor and sometimes muse of my beloved Thomas Wolfe. Thank you especially to Henry Fischer and the Dearborn Public Library for continuing to honor me by including my work.”

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, designed to broaden our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. For a third time, Dearborn Public Library is one of 75 organizations nationwide that received this grant to host a Big Read program in their community. Tree Anthology focuses on nature and ecology as primary themes.

To help bring this massive project to life, Dearborn Public Library has partnered with many institutions and organizations, including DFCU Financial, AAUW-Dearborn, The Henry Ford, the Arab American National Museum, the Dearborn Community Fund, Dearborn Public Schools, the City of Dearborn Department of Public Information, Artspace, Dearborn Public Library Foundation, Dearborn Library Commission, Friends of the Library-Dearborn, University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-D) Mardigian Library, Henry Ford College Eshleman Library, Beaumont Medical Library, East and West Dearborn Downtown Development Authorities, Dearborn Inn, Green Brain Comics, and Dearborn Heights Libraries.

Susie Duncan Sexton grew up in small town Columbia City, Indiana. After graduating twelfth in her class at Ball State University (winning the first ever John R. Emens award for “most outstanding senior”), she returned to her hometown where she has worked as a teacher, a publicist, a museum curator, and a health lecturer.

She is a prolific writer. She has written two columns: “Old Type Writer” for a popular local blog Talk of the Town and “Homeward Angle” for the Columbia City Post and Mail newspaper. She has been a frequent contributor to the literary journal Moronic Ox, and her poetry was selected by poet Charles Michael Madigan and by Wayne State professor M.L. Liebler to be featured in Poetic Resonance Imaging: Behind the Door. She also has been featured in Our USA, Writing Raw, Where Writers Write, and InD’tale magazines. Her books Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its sequel Misunderstood Gargoyles & Overrated Angels are currently available in paperback (as well as download formats) at www.amazon.com and www.susieduncansexton.com. Her son Roy Sexton published two books of film, theatre, music, and pop culture essays, Reel Roy Reviews, 1 & 2 (www.reelroyreviews.com).

Describing her work, Susie says, “I willingly share nostalgic trips to the past as I have now achieved such an old age that no one remains who can question the authenticity of my memory of places, people and events that were very much never what they were cracked up to be.”

Always an observer of events and human traits, Susie Duncan Sexton offers without apology her thoughts and observations as they are and once were, and fitting her persona into pigeonholes is impossible. “I have searched for the ‘We of Me’ since toddler days and have always come up wanting,” she says, “though I trust that in my next life I shall finally have figured out how to make this world a better place full of tolerance and inclusiveness and understanding for all forms of life.” Find out more about Susie and read her latest columns at www.susieduncansexton.com.