Nina Serrano’s Nomination Speech for the Pen Oakland Book Awards 2013
As soon as I heard the title of Lucille Lang Day’s memoir, “Married at 14”, published by Heyday Books, I felt vindicated, championed and respected. I knew at once that sometimes you can judge a book by its cover and its title. I already knew that the mature adult Lucy Day was a respected poet, editor and publisher had even had a day job running a science museum. So with credentials like that how could her book not have a happy ending? Now, all of us teen brides could hold our heads high with the crusading smashing of stereotypes that Lucille Lang Day’s story seemed to promised.
Lucille Lang Day Memoir: A Page Turner
I was not disappointed. It turned out to be a page-turner as well, revealing the seamy side of our neighbors in upscale Piedmont, whose dirty linens, unlike ours in neighboring Oakland, don’t usually make the headlines. This book written with wit, style and good will towards the “bad” and the “dangerous” breaks every clichéd expectation and brings hope for positive female development and empowerment on that perilous road from girl to woman, that each of us, our daughters and granddaughters have to face, temptation by temptation.
“Married at Fourteen” leads the way with it’s foot printed trail to the possibility of change. Change after all is our only constant. So, that is why I have the pleasure of nominating this book for this year’s award.
Send to Kindle
Reader Interactions