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Healing the Social Fabric:
Mosaic of Voices a Grassroots History
of Unprecedented Time
ALLENDALE, NJ — The powerful, multiple award-winning
anthology from journalist, author and editor Lorraine Ash,
Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter, chronicles
life in New York and New Jersey, the nation's first COVID-19
epicenter, during the four terrifying months of March
through June 2020.
“Corona City is the real, raw story of the pandemic,
not sanitized, not politicized, not spun in any way,” Ash
said. “It focuses on the people and how their minds, their
hearts, their daily lives — and, in some cases, their life
trajectory — changed because of the pandemic. In my
journalism career, I’ve always felt that no story is
complete without showing how a policy, a trend, a calamity
or an event impacts individuals.”
COVID-19 survivors, frontline workers, business owners,
journalists, an opera singer, an addiction counselor, a
cancer patient and many others — 62 in all — lend their
perspectives and lay bare the challenges, fears, losses and
triumphs of real people in their own words. Photographs
capture the surreal landscapes and scenes in this usually
thriving metropolis. Emerging from this mosaic of voices is
a grassroots history of an unprecedented time.
“This project is all about telling stories and giving voice
to narratives about COVID-19,” Ash added. “I chose to create
an anthology of first-person writings and photographs
because the pandemic was a story too big to be told in one
voice. This account needed to be polyphonic.”
Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter
has won four international awards. The
audiobook won the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award for
Outstanding Audiobook of the Year. Additionally, Walker
Vreeland won a 2023 Voice Arts Award for Best Audiobook
Producer for his work on Corona City. The paperback
won Best Anthology and
Best COVID-19 Pandemic Book in the 2021 Next Generation
Indie
Book Awards.
Everyone involved in the project volunteered their efforts,
including the publisher, Magic Dog Press; audiobook
producer, Walker Vreeland; and audiobook casting director,
Margie Lenhart, who recruited 62 professional narrators for
the full-cast audiobook, including notable names such as Joe
Mantegna of Criminal Minds and Broadway actors Jill
Abramovitz, Ron Bohmer, Sandra Joseph, Ta’Nika Gibson
and Leah Horowitz.
One hundred percent of the proceeds from sales of
Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter go to hunger
relief.
About the Author
Lorraine Ash, MA, works as a book editor and author coach
specializing in all forms of autobiographical writing. She
has penned two memoirs, Life Touches Life: A Mother's
Story of Stillbirth and Healing and Self and Soul: On
Creating a Meaningful Life. Most recently, she edited
the award-winning Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter,
an anthology of first-person writings that chronicles life
in New Jersey and New York when these two states were the
nation's first COVID-19 epicenter.
Ash studied at Fordham University and California State
University, Long Beach. She lives in New Jersey.
For more information, please visit
https://lorraineash.com,
or connect with her on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LorraineAshAuthor/
and
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092328474969)
and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorrainevash/).
Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/Corona-City-Epicenter-Lorraine-Ash/dp/1735724505
Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter
Publisher: Magic Dog Press
ISBN-10: 1735724505
ISBN-13: 978-1735724508
Available from Amazon.com
Reviews:
“The audiobook version beautifully conveys
the collection’s personal stories, featuring clear,
articulate, and emotive narration, and is perhaps the best
way to experience the book.”
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Edward Sung for IndieReader
“An informative, compelling, thoughtful and
thought-provoking collection of sixty-two first-person
essays,
Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter
is a unique, extraordinary, and unreservedly recommended
addition to community, college and university library
collections.”
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Mary Cowper for Midwest Book Review
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