The Woman Who Wasn't Drowning explores the memories of the psychological, social, and political transitions from childhood to adulthood as a woman; it draws on unconscious religious themes as an unavoidable part of the socio-political experience in the American South.

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Here is a fact about the way of being a woman: it is both magical and terrifying. Here is a metaphor about it: when I was a girl, I could speak, but these days words fail me.

My girlhood was spent devouring books and dreaming about being a woman. And then one day, I blinked and realized that it had happened when I wasn’t looking. And maybe I didn’t know it because it didn’t look exactly the way I had expected. Instead of enchantment, I was met with cold, sterile tools. Instead of being swept off my feet, I found myself watching over my shoulder when walking alone. Stepping into womanhood is like the deep breath you inhale and that first gulp you take. Sometimes you choke a little, but it is ripe with the promise of youth and new beginnings, of growth and stretching into shoes that feel a little too large.

The way of being a woman means sinking into the knowledge that I am a collection of the women who have come before me, a collage of their experiences and a recollection of my own.

SONJA LANGFORD

SONJA LANGFORD