Surviving Peter Pan

Advance Praise for Surviving Peter Pan

Marissa Forbes' Surviving Peter Pan is a masterful poetry collection that brings fantasy into the real life story of a mother and her children being forced to grow and adapt without a husband and father. Having survived the emotional abuse and trauma from her own Peter Pan, Forbes takes us on a voyage of revisiting her past to make peace with her present. A mother's love brings her to the realization that she must overcome her own pain, so that her children have a chance to heal in the future.

-Andrés Sánchez, This Body

This magical and terrifying collection, "Surviving Peter Pan" gazes back on childhood ideas of motherhood, marriage, and the story of "Peter Pan" then peels back the layers of this magical land of immortality and adventure to expose misogyny, abuse, and colonization: both in the original text of "Peter Pan" and in the hardships women endure day in and day out. This collection, however, is a reclamation of these oppressive narratives, and a beginning of her own story of independence and flight.

-Ashley Howell Bunn, in coming light

In a lyric journey both personal and metaphorical, "Surviving Peter Pan" dismantles the illusion of the forever boy. Forbes tells her story through the voices of Wendy, Tiger Lily, and Tinkerbell, helping women reclaim the leading role in their own narrative. As long as our culture glamorizes the false promises of charming men, we will need the vulnerable examination of lived experience Forbes provides-so we can survive as well.

-Amy Wray Irish, Down to the Bone and Breathing Fire