Building a Woman

This collection of poems is a trajectory of one life-from girlhood to womanhood-with all the complications of family, the joy of friends, grief and loss, and ultimately finding lasting love. Meltvedt poetically weaves her experiences growing up as a doctor’s daughter in California in the 1960s and 70s with the cultural expectations of women (and their reproductive lives) in the past and still today. Building a Woman also gives tribute to how we often find worth within prescribed family lives, but maybe more so through long-lasting female friendships.

“Meltvedt’s words ring out like bells and call to us like a friend, urging us to come visit; stay a while; enjoy.” -Anara Guard, author of Hand on My Heart

“…arresting images and precise language that chronicles a woman’s journey to self-acceptance and love. -Jan Haag, author of Companion Spirit

“Her writing takes my breath and rearranges me-in all of the best ways.” -Jodi Angel, author of The History of Vegas and You Only Get Letters from Jail

Author Biography

Deborah Meltvedt is a high school teacher who loves to blend medical science and art in both the classroom and in her own writing. Deborah grew up in the suburbs and fields of the San Joaquin Valley whose landscapes and culture form a backbone to her poetry. As a doctor’s daughter and feminist, she feels strongly about women’s health and reproductive rights and respecting the traditional and non-traditional paths women take in their lives. Her poems and stories have been published in the American River Literary Review, Susurrus, Under the Gum Tree, Tule Review, The Poeming Pigeon, and the Creative Non-Fiction Anthology What I Didn’t Know: True Stories of Becoming a Teacher. Deborah lives in Sacramento with her funny and supportive husband, Rick Kushman, and their cat, Anchovy Jack, who in his former life used to be a pirate.