THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE A SURPRISE BOOK RELEASE!!!!!!! Paper Stars Press is delighted to drop our latest title, The Artist Academic (a professional memoir and guidebook) by Patricia Leavy.
While the future was uncertain, it was hopeful. The road ahead was foggy and I didn’t know exactly where it would lead, but I knew I wanted to stay on it. Somewhere in the distance, I could envision a career that didn’t just look good, but one that felt good. Regardless, I was enjoying the journey again . . . There is no revenge for being subjected to misogyny and abuse. Success is lovely but never guaranteed and always fleeting. Creativity though is a well that never runs dry. It is a tool, an elixir, and an antidote. It can even be a weapon, when we need it to be.
Part memoir, part guidebook, The Artist Academic is essential reading for anyone looking to bridge their academic and artistic endeavors. Leavy details her exemplary career in academia, the frustrations that led her to explore creative approaches to research, her journey to becoming a public intellectual, and her successful transition to commercial novelist. The Artist Academic addresses the question Leavy is most frequently asked: How did you do it? In this deep dive into the backstage of her career, she holds nothing back and not only offers personal experiences, but also a roadmap for others. Leavy points to the “messy gut checks” that led her to “turning points” and how you might do the same. This book is filled with invaluable advice and insider tips on the publishing industry, how to build bridges between academia and the public, developing an artist platform, dealing with misogyny and other challenges, and protecting your creativity. Written with grace, enthusiasm, and honesty, this is an inspirational guide to finding and living your purpose.
“This book is a breath of fresh air. So many of us struggle to do the work we most long to do, or to balance the demands of an academic job with an artistic calling. The Artist Academic is a must-read for every educator, art educator, graduate student, artist, and creative. Very highly recommended!”
— Jessie Voigts, Ph.D., founder of Wandering Educators
“A deeply personal and inspiring roadmap for those navigating careers off the beaten path. A wise, honest, and quietly luminous guide for those daring to walk the borderlands of creativity and intellect. A must read.”
— Henry A. Giroux, Ph.D., author of Assassins of Memory
“A tour de force! With The Artist Academic Patricia Leavy picks up the torch and lights the way for all those seeking a fulfilling and creative life. Read this book, it will inspire you.”
— Laurel Richardson, Ph.D., author of Fields of Play
“The Artist Academic is both memoir and manifesto—a rallying call for all of us who yearn to unite intellect and imagination, and to make meaningful, soulful work that resonates within and beyond the academy. A must-read for anyone navigating the liminal space between artistic vision and scholarly purpose.”
—Roula-Maria Dib, founder of the London Arts-Based Research Centre
Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Artist-Academic-Literary-Scholar-ebook/dp/B0FKK4ST4B
SURPRISE!!!!!!!!! Paper Stars Press is thrilled to surprise drop our fifth title, Film Blue (a novel) by Patricia Leavy.
Reminiscent of Sex and the City meets The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Patricia Leavy’s Film Blue is a captivating and inspiring story about the pursuit of dreams and what it truly means to live a “big” life.
A couple of years after finishing college, Tash Daniels has put her love of filmmaking on the back burner. She’s working retail, club-hopping, and scraping by to pay the rent. Usually attracted to the wrong guy, she’s at a loss when she finally falls for the right one. Sexy deejay Aidan is living his life authentically as an artist and encourages her to do the same. Will she open her heart? Will she bet on herself and her dreams? Is a girl with a dream truly on her own in the world? Tash’s friends are along for the journey: Jason Woo, lighthearted model on the rise; Penelope Waters, earnest graduate student with a secret no one suspects; Lu K, fiercely independent hot-girl deejay; and Monroe Preston, the glamorous wife of a Hollywood studio head. Frequently bathed in the glow of the silver screen, the characters show us how the arts can reignite the light within, pushing us to confront our fears so we can choose how to live in the present. Film Blue is a novel about following our passions, the hidden side of our dreams, the power of art, what it means to truly live a “big” life, and finding the people to go with us on our journey. A tribute to 1980s pop culture set against the backdrop of contemporary New York and Los Angeles, Film Blue celebrates how the art we experience and make can shape our stories, frame by frame.
“Film Blue is a joyful, inspiring and painfully beautiful novel written by gifted scholar and writer, Patricia Leavy.” Norman Denzin, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
“I love it. I just love it. Film Blue takes you inside yourself, and outside, too. It inspires a belief in possibility. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Young adults should read this. Brava!” Laurel Richardson, Ph.D., author of Lone Twin
“I couldn’t put it down, absolutely loved it, and can’t stop thinking about it. Film Blue is a treasure. Highly recommended.” Jessie Voigts, Ph.D., Wandering Educators
“Film Blue is a love letter to popular culture, and in particular, illustrates how art may sustain us through life’s challenges when those around us may not.” Alexandra Lasczik, Ph.D., Southern Cross University
“An engaging piece of public scholarship, Film Blue provides rich food for thought about the pop culture landscape and how it shapes our own stories. With a subtext about privilege, opportunity, sexual assault and gender, this would be a useful and fun teaching tool.” Sut Jhally, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Founder & Executive Director, Media Education Foundation
“Film Blue reminds me of what it meant to live through the blue of young adulthood.” Mary E. Weems, Ph.D., author of Blackeyed: Plays and Monologues and Cleveland Arts Prize winner
“Film Blue tells a powerful story of women who overcome obstacles in pursuit of their dreams… this timely novel illustrates the cultural context in which girls and women live their lives. An engaging read, Film Blue is sure to stimulate reflection, both personally and more broadly in book clubs and courses on media and gender.” Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., author, feminist activist, and creator of the Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women film series
“Friends meets Girls meets The Perks of being a Wallflower, all with its own 1980s vibes. It’s light and fun reading, with messages that linger.” U. Melissa Anyiwo, Ph.D., editor of Gender Warriors
Buy a paperback or e-book on Amazon:
Paper Stars Press is delighted to release our fourth title, Privilege Through the Looking-Glass, Second Edition, edited by Patricia Leavy. We are thrilled to release a brand-new edition of this awarding-winning and widely adopted text.
Privilege Through the Looking-Glass, Second Edition is a revised and expanded collection of essays that explore privilege and status characteristics in daily life. This collection seeks to make visible that which is often invisible. It seeks to sensitize us to things we have been taught not to see. Privilege, power, oppression, and domination operate in complex and insidious ways, impacting groups and individuals. And yet, these forces that affect our lives so deeply seem to at once operate in plain sight and lurk in the shadows, making them difficult to discern. Like water to a fish, environments are nearly impossible to perceive when we are immersed in them. This book attempts to expose our environments. With engaging and powerful writing, the contributors share their personal stories as a means of connecting the personal and the public. This volume applies an intersectional perspective to explore how race, class, gender, sexuality, education, and ableness converge, creating the basis for privilege and oppression. Privilege Through the Looking-Glass encourages readers to engage in self and social reflection, and can be used in a range of courses in sociology, social work, communication, education, gender studies, and African American studies. Each chapter includes discussion questions and/or activities for further engagement.
“Poignant and unflinching… this book has lessons for anyone with the spirit to explore better ways to be themselves and relate to others.” Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D., Howard University, and Editor-in-Chief for The Journal of Negro Education
“Every educator should read this book.” Henry A. Giroux, Ph.D., McMaster University
“… a powerful testament to the urgency of understanding privilege and deserves to be read widely.” Peter McLaren, Ph.D., Chapman University
“… an ideal text for sensitizing students to the myriad of social forces operating within, around, and beyond their own everyday experiences and assumptions.” J.E. Sumerau, Ph.D., University of Tampa
“In highly accessible and unique ways, this book shines a light on the complexities of cultural life, and in ways that will entice and challenge readers, compelling them to re-think their ways of being with others, and themselves.” Keith Berry, Ph.D., University of South Florida and the National Communication Association Anti-Bullying Task Force Co-Chair
“As a social policy instructor and clinical social worker, I always find opportunities to use Leavy’s work with my student.” Renita M. Davis, LCSW, PIP
Buy a paperback or e-book on Amazon:
Paper Stars Press is thrilled to announce the release of Low-Fat Love: 10th Anniversary Edition by Patricia Leavy.
Prilly Greene lives between who she is and who she longs to be. She moved to New York City in search of a “big life.” Despite her job at a publishing house and weekends spent racing around the city, she’s painfully lonely. She falls for Pete Rice, an unemployed, charming, ever-sexy aspiring graphic novelist. Prilly thinks she is finally experiencing the big life she always sought but feared was beyond her grasp. Pete’s unconventional, free-spirited views on relationships unsettle Prilly, ultimately causing her to unravel over the course of their on-again, off-again love affair. Meanwhile, her colleague Janice Goldwyn, a workaholic, feminist-in-name-only editor, undercuts her professional identity at every turn. Janice’s “picture-perfect” life is set on a new course when her alcoholic father is injured in a car accident and she is forced to face her own demons. Ultimately, each woman is pushed to confront her own self-image and reasons for having settled for low-fat love. Along with Prilly and Janice, a cast of characters’ stories are interwoven throughout the book. The offbeat characters include Melville, Pete’s awkward friend who lives one beat outside the moment; Jacob, Melville’s younger, pothead brother; Kyle, Janice’s seventeen-year-old son, who appears ordinary in every way but is actually quite extraordinary; and Tash, Kyle’s wild, sexpot cousin who ends up dating Jacob. Low-Fat Love is a novel about the struggle to overcome the secret fear that we are not enough so that we can reimagine ourselves and truly live a “big life.”
“Low-Fat Love proves the astonishing talent that Leavy possesses as both a writer and social commentator. Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Girls meets Sex and the City, but all with Leavy’s raw honesty and clever wit. This is one of my favorite books with a message I can’t shake.” – U. Melissa Anyiwo, Ph.D., editor of Gender Warriors
“Witty, humorous, and smart. The true beauty and power of this novel is reflected in the ways the characters—just like many of us—settle in life and love.” – J. E. Sumerau, Ph.D., author of Via Chicago
“This definitive 10th anniversary edition of Low-Fat Love does not disappoint. The new ending is brilliant. I would run, not stroll, to get a copy for yourself and all the important people in your life. This beautiful and relatable novel offers smart critique of how pop culture’s expectations for intimate relationships often let us down.” – Sandra L. Faulkner, Ph.D., author of Real Women Run
Buy a paperback or e-book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Low-Fat-Love-Anniversary-Patricia-Leavy/dp/0578891883
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