Shoshana Cote

Favorite Auntie Emu Shoshana Cote

This book is a collection of poems that involve the outer world of nature. Yet even more, they involve the inner realm of stories revisited and poetry as narrative of the happiness and struggles experienced by an adoptive mom dealing with her children's pre-adolescence and teenage years - a challenging time of life which was made more difficult by how their young bodies, mental perceptions, and emotional regulation (or lack thereof) were permanently affected by alcohol while still in the womb of their biological mother.

"Favorite Auntie Emu" refers to the fact that the presence of Fetal Alcohol Effects/Fetal Alcohol Syndrome was like having a relative whom we never quite "saw" but whose presence brought mystery, confusion, sadness, and joyful surprise.