....................... Author’s Corner .......................
A new monthly series highlighting local authors in North Alabama
“Unbroken Bonds” by Dawn Hogan
I
By GREGG PARKER
For book detail: goodreads.com/dawnhogan Launch date: October 5, 2021 About the publisher: Published by Woodhall Press Unbroken Bonds -- woodhallpress.com Pre-order: Amazon.com, Unbroken bonds dw hogan; barnesandnoble.com Author’s vitals: Email -- dwhogan@comcast.net Website -- DWHogan.com Facebook -- D.W. Hogan Author Instagram -- dawnhoganauthor Phone -- 256-655-7376 Address -- 2508 Quail Ridge Lane, Huntsville, AL 35803 Book events: Dawn Hogan is partnering with Snail On The Wall Book Store to hold an in-person book launch on October 19, 5-7 p.m. at the Historic Lowry House, 1205 Kildare Street in Huntsville.
In 1956, the worst thing a teenage girl could do was to become pregnant, according to Dawn Hogan in her debut novel, “Unbroken Bonds.” The book follows the lifelong friendship of Joanna, Prissy, Jessie and Mary, who met during incarceration in Frances Weston Home for Unwed Mothers in Knoxville, Tennessee. “Together, they endure the culture of shame and soul-crushing tactics dispensed by the Catholic nuns who coerce the teenagers into relinquishing their illegitimate babies,” author Dawn. Hogan writes. Upholding their vow of friendship bonds, the young women rebuild their lives in the Deep South during the turbulent 1960s. In subsequent decades after their children’s births, roles of women and single mothers eventually evolve. When tragedy strikes, they face a decision: guard their past secrets or discover the fates of the children they were forced to give away. Hogan’s book research started after her close friend’s request to search for her birth mother who gave her up for adoption. Hogan discovered the hush-hush topic of sealed adoptions. Both fascinated and appalled, Hogan studied degrading tactics that the institutions perpetrated to garner unscrupulously profits -- under the guise of benevolence. “During this time in history, basic rights of the unfortunate girls were not presented. They were told to go on with their lives as if nothing had happened,” Hogan said. Unable to shelve nagging emotions of these women and their rehomed children, Hogan constructed a fictional account of the disturbingly true circumstances that caused one of the United States’ most disgraceful and hidden secrets. Colleagues in the publishing industry have endorsed Hogan’s “Unbroken Bonds”: • “’Unbroken Bonds’ vividly captures the terrible vulnerability of young white women in the United States in the decades before ‘reproductive rights’ became available to any but the wealthiest of us. Dawn Hogan richly portrays the dozens of ways that sexuality and its consequences endangered the safety and dignity of girls and women when their only source of strength was each other.” -- Rickie Solinger, author of “Wake
Author Dawn Hogan Up, Little Susie: Single Pregnancy” and “Race before Roe v. Wade” • “As a birth mother myself, I know the pain and confusion surrounding the relinquishment of one’s child. Dawn Hogan has done meticulous research into the feelings, psychology and aftermath of this experience. This book . . . (can help) first mothers heal the wounds created by the loss of their children.” -- Fran Gruss Levin, “The Story of Molly and Me” and “CUB Board Member” • “As an adoptee coming to a place of acceptance, I’ve had to put myself in the shoes of my first mother at the time of my conception to gain a better understanding of what life was like back then. . . Although times have changed in some regard, we must be awakened in the truths that separation trauma for the adoptee and first mother lasts a lifetime.” – Pamela Karanova, Adoptees Connect Inc. Hogan majored in English at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The mother of four adult children, she has two grandchildren. She now works as a full-time author and lives in southeast Huntsville, Alabama with her husband Ralph Hogan, who works for Future Electronics. Married for 30 years, the Hogans formerly owned a photography business for 15 years. They photographed 400-plus weddings, along with humane society assignments and portraits. Dawn also worked several years as an administrative assistant in the tech arena.
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