Alyson Shelton, one of the creators of the Reburn series, was inspired by the poem Where I’m From by George Ella Lyon. Every week she invites different writers to use the poem as a prompt to create their own poem about their past. Here’s mine. It was such a wonderful experience and discussion afterwards. I hope you enjoy! Comment if you did!
We won!
Catalogue Baby wins the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature in the non-fiction category!
WE WONNNNNN!!!!! WOOHOO!! I am so thrilled and honoured to have Catalogue Baby recognized in such a significant way.
Here's what the award's jury had to say about Catalogue Baby:
“A riveting graphic novel/memoir on infertility. Steinberg leads the reader through the emotional and physical roller coaster of getting pregnant — the highs and lows, her body endlessly prodded and tested, repeated success and rejection, decision-making dilemmas, mixed feelings of failure and self-doubt — all underpinned by humour and determination.” – Vine Awards Jury
A huge thank you to the Lillian and Norman Glowinsky Family Foundation for sponsoring this award, to the Koffler Centre of the Arts, for presenting the award, and to the jurors, Zelda Abramson, Nathan Adler, and Naomi K. Lewis, for recognizing Catalogue Baby as an important addition to the world of books. Thank you to everyone at Page Two books for believing in the project from the very first email I'd sent proposing the book, and for all your moral, emotional, and logistical support throughout the 2+ years it took to bring the book out into the world. And of course, thank you to you - all my family and friends - for supporting me and this project from day one. You are all amazing!
Shortlisted for the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature!
I opened my email inbox three days ago (I wasn't allowed to announce it until now), and the first thing that jumped out at me was:
"On behalf of the Koffler Centre of the Arts in Toronto, I'd like to congratulate you both on being shortlisted for the 2021 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature! Catalogue Baby: A Memoir of (In)fertility, was shortlisted in the Non-Fiction category."
You can imagine my surprise and glee when I read those words! It sure did make my day. The Vine Awards winners will be announced this year at an online awards ceremony on November 23rd. If you want to see the full list of shortlisted authors, they will be printed in this Saturday's Globe and Mail newspaper (October 23), so be sure to pick up a copy if you can!
So now cross fingers everyone that Catalogue Baby is the finalist for this wonderful award! To check out the full list of shortlisted books, go to kofflerarts.org/News-Insights/News/The-2021-Vine-Awards-Shortlist
I was a guest on the Miracles Happen Podcast
It was such a pleasure to be a guest on the Miracles Happen Podcast with Dr. Maria Rothenburger .
For those of you who have heard my fertility journey already, skip to about the middle where we start talking about the intense challenges of my twin pregnancy as well as my experiences meeting the spirits of the babies who passed through my body. It sounds woo-woo... But it was real.
For me, there were a few marking incidents. Names would float past while I was pregnant which belonged to the babies and told me not only a little something about their potential personalities but also their sex. This happened with almost every one of my five pregnancies, whether I had a miscarriage or not.
For the final pregnancy, the twins' spirits would come and snuggle with me at night even before the embryos were formed in the Petri dish. I always wondered why there were more than one... Until the day after my embryo transfer day when I knew I was carrying two babies 😯 😍.
There were so many other moments like that. Inexplicable and wondrous.
Mother's Day Facebook live with Lani Brunn
Conversation with Lani Brunn about motherhood and Mother’s Day.
Catalogue Baby is launched!
If you missed the launch event, here it is! Enjoy!
Book Launch!
Join us on February 24 for the launch of Catalogue Baby!
Hosted by the Vancouver Jewish Book Festival, the event will feature me, Christache (the illustrator), and Lani Brunn (one of the other central characters of the book. You’ll get to find out about the experience of writing and drawing Catalogue Baby, as well as ask us any questions you may have! Get your tickets here.
Check out the festival program for the full amazing line-up:
Participatory Social Media project
A few days ago, a friend of mine sent me the link to the article the New York Times put out about Meghan Markle’s miscarriage. The article affected me in a pretty strong way and has inspired me to start a social media project about infertility and infant loss. I am looking for people to participate in the project.
Miscarriage is one of the most brutal things to experience. It can slay you emotionally, physically, and spiritually. When the New York Times put out the article about Meghan Markle and her miscarriage, it got me thinking about how (as in so many issues), the media gifts celebrities with a voice to openly talk about issues that affect countless people - in this case infant loss and struggles conceiving. The “common” folk often still have to struggle with how, when, if to talk about their struggles with loss, grief, and death.
This in no way is meant to lessen or discount Meghan's pain (or the pain of any celebrity voicing their experience). Celeb voices are so important in starting the conversation but it often feels like it just ends there. We may grieve for their loss. We may feel temporarily less alone if we have experienced something similar. But it mostly still remains a solitary thing and the conversation doesn't truly flow into community, or make it less taboo and scary to admit. It also doesn't give a platform for non-celebrities to tell their stories safely outside of their tight support network (assuming they even have a support network).
So I was thinking of creating a photo montage that mixes up portraits of people who have experienced loss and/or challenges conceiving with portraits of celebs who have had their voices resonate over the airwaves, giving equal voice to all. I would ideally like to shape the photos so that all together they make up an ultrasound of a uterus. I would like to invite people of all walks of life who have experienced loss or issues with fertility to have their faces as part of this project. This is for straight women, people in the lgbtq2s+ community, including trans men and women, people in relationships with a co-parent, single parents by choice, old and young.
If you would like more information or would like to participate, please feel free to contact me at myriam@thefighouse.ca.
Now available for direct sale!
I am soooo excited to announce that, although it’s not available for pre-sales on-line or in stores yet, Catalogue Baby is now available for direct sale from me! I have a big stack of books just waiting to find a new home with you.
October is pregnancy loss awareness month. What a perfect time to share Catalogue Baby with you all! For a limited time only, I'll be selling them for $23.95. Their final retail price is $29.95 so get it while the gettin's hot! The caveat is that it's porch pick-up only (I live in Vancouver, BC) or shipping is on top of the book price (Shipping costs $15 anywhere in BC, $18 to the rest of Canada, or $20 to the States. If you live anywhere else in the world, it costs upwards of $40-50 to ship so you can either wait until it's available for on-line sales through Indigo, Barnes and Nobles or Amazon - in which case you'll get the book early March, or be brave and go for it, or if you have someone coming from Vancouver to you, you can ask them to pick up the book for you. Although I'm guessing that final option is likely pretty unlikely thanks to Covid). Payment can be made via e-transfer to myriam@thefighouse.ca, cash or credit card at the door (I use Square). Email me to arrange getting your copy.
I'm so proud of the book. I'm so blown away by the feedback I've received so far from folks who have read it so far. Pretty much everyone has mentioned that they were unable to put it down, they laughed and cried, it's raw, the illustrations by Chris Stache are beautiful, and it gave a real portrayal of miscarriage and the tumultuous road that can sometimes happen on the road to conception. I can't tell you what it means to me that you feel that the book has succeeded in its mission to deeply touch and inform its readers. I truly hope it will help far and wide!
Off to the printer's!
It’s finally happening! Catalogue Baby is off to the printer’s. It was a long voyage getting there. So much has happened and there were times when I wasn’t sure it would ever get finished. But here we are! It’s a beautiful, moving, and intense piece of literature and I’m so proud of how all the hard work turned out.
I get the book in-hand mid-September, but the official launch isn’t until March 2, 2021. It’s a ways away, but fear not! You’ll be able to pre-purchase the book well in advance. I’ll post the link as soon as I know when pre-orders can be made.
For the next few weeks, it’s time to soak in the accomplishment and perhaps take a little breather.
Indiegogo fundraising campaign over!
The fundraising campaign is over. Between on-line and off-line donors we managed to raise $11,652! Thank you so much for helping to bring this book into the world! If you missed the boat on donating to the Indiegogo campaign and still wanted to contribute, shoot me a message and let's talk! I'm so excited to share the process with you as it moves along, and starting in the fall, to give you little glimpses at some of the pages as they get illustrated. Right now, I'm just waiting for the first draft to come back from the editor and then, until mid-August, I'll be reworking the text, tightening up the story, and preparing it for Christache's drawing board! Whew! So much love to all you out there!
1st Draft Submitted!
I can't believe I did it, but 275 pages and just over 2 sketchbook fulls later, I have submitted my first draft of Catalogue Baby to the editor! I'm so curious to see what they think of it. It was an emotional and physical rollercoaster to write it. So many hard moments revisited, but also lots of very beautiful times filled with love and generosity. And let me tell you - writing while nauseous and filled with body aches is no fun at all! But there you have it.
I now have two weeks in which to take my mind off the actual book and focus on the Indiegogo campaign which only has 10 or so days left in it!
3-pager storyboard in honor of National Infertility Awareness Week
Today is the first day of National Infertility Awareness Week. There's a lot of moving and shaking, and voices wanting to be heard out there! It's a hard thing to talk about but it's so necessary. In honor of that, I thought I'd share 3 pages of my Catalogue Baby storyboarding around miscarriage (this is one of the steps before going to the illustrator). It's hard stuff to try to represent well and then to share, but it's true for me and I think for countless other women. It's only part of the story, and it's only part of the physical and emotional sensations that wreak havoc when things go horribly wrong with a pregnancy.
If the imagery moves you, if you think it's an important story to share, if you wish there were more easily accessible resources around fertility challenges, if you, someone you know, or someone you've heard of has gone through such tragedies, please consider contributing to the Indiegogo campaign to illustrate and publish the book. Click here to read more about my story, the book, and to donate: www.igg.me/at/cataloguebaby
First 63 Consecutive Pages Finished Today!
I'm so excited that the first 63 consecutive pages are now scripted and storyboarded! It includes the Prologue and the IUI, pregnancy, and miscarriage of the first baby. It was so interesting and often difficult to write about. The highs were high and the lows were devastating and soul-altering. In all of it, I started glimpsing the depths of emotions, strengths, and weaknesses that went completely untapped before trying to conceive. I love that I got to explore these events and feelings with words and drawings, realism and metaphor, laughter and tears.
I have written big chunks of other events over the last four years (about 50 other pages), My self-imposed deadline of June 1 for getting the first draft of script and storyboards may be realistic after all! It's pretty amazing when things flow so nicely!
Double-dose Embryo Transfer Happened Today!
Today I get to work on Catalogue Baby in the company of some pretty rad cell clusters! I just came back from the fertility clinic cause I had two of my five embryos transferred! That's right! Two euploid (genetically tested and "normal") embryos were put into my uterus today. Normally they would only transfer one, but because of my history of recurrent loss, they decided to up my chances of having at least one stick and stay and grow and they gave me a double dose!
The circled ones are the 2 that were chosen.
Indiegogo campaign is live!
I'm so excited to announce that the fundraising campaign for Catalogue Baby is underway! It happens to be my birthday too, so what better present to give than your support to a book that will help so many people? Please check out the Indiegogo site at www.igg.me/at/cataloguebaby.
There are loads of amazing perks, including a signed copy of the book, cool merch, being drawn into the actual book! Or you can go big and become a sponsor of an entire page!
Check out this 3-page sampler of the book. It's fantabulous! But it's only 3 of the 200+ pages that will comprise the book. Help us create the rest of those pages!
