The debut book of Amber Jensen, a senior lecturer in South Dakota State University's School of English and Interdisciplinary Studies, is due out on March 15.
Titled "The Smoke of You," Jensen's book is a memoir of her family's experiences, from finding love in small-town South Dakota to military deployment and childbirth to life after combat.
"We got married, and my husband was deployed to Iraq shortly after," Jensen said. "When he was there, our son was born. He returned home a few weeks before our son's first birthday. The book goes into those experiences and what has unfolded since he returned."
Jensen said she began the book 15 years ago to cope with the fear of a father missing his son's first year.
"Does that affect the relationship between father and son?" Jensen said. "Writing this book was in part an answer to that question."
Over the years, bits of pieces of her memoir have appeared in her various essays and literary articles. It wasn't until advice from one of her graduate-level professors that Jensen began working on a book.
"He said, 'I hate to tell you this, but I think you are writing a book,'" Jensen explained. "I knew there was more to this than just individual stories. I think that's part of why the writing process was longer. I had to reconceive individual stories into a whole narrative."
Jensen's book is coincidentally being released on the 20th anniversary of the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq.
"This book is kind of a long-range picture of what life looks like after the military," Jensen added.
Jensen has been with SDSU, where she teaches courses in writing and literature, since 2013. She earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from SDSU. She also received a Master of Fine Arts with a specialization in creative nonfiction from the University of New Orleans in 2012.
“Not only is Amber a fantastic writer and wonderful colleague, but she is an equally fantastic and wonderful teacher who has devoted years to enriching our students’ writing experiences," said Jason McEntee, director of the School of English and Interdisciplinary Studies. "She also, for years, has volunteered both at the Sioux Falls veterans’ hospital, leading their literature and medicine program, and here at SDSU, founding and facilitating the Veterans’ Writing Group. Her contributions in this regard are both meaningful and impactful.”
Her previous work has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies, including Oakwood, North Dakota Quarterly, O-Dark-Thirty, and Red, White and True: Stories from Veterans and Families, WII to Present.
A book launch event for "The Smoke of You" will be held March 23 at the South Dakota Art Museum. Copies will be available for purchase.
Milspeak Books is the publisher for Jensen's book while Ingram Book Group is the distributor.
"The Smoke of You" is currently available for pre-order and can be found at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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