"Written with the spare, sensual, and deeply evocative prose of a master, this brave and ultimately transcendent memoir is an absolute gem. What Kelly J. Beard accomplishes here is stunning: by stepping nakedly back into her youth as the daughter of Christian fundamentalists, a lifelong couple whose love for one another never seemed to wane, she also steps back into violence and neglect, poverty and the shame of the poor, the striving for one's very selfhood when few seem to be able to help or pay much attention. And Beard renders all of this, and more, with a poet's clear-eyed search for the truth. An Imperfect Rapture is a plaintive hymn of forgiveness, and it moved me to tears many times over. This is, quite simply, a beautiful book." --Andre Dubus III, author of Gone So Long and Dirty Love
"Haunting in its recall, this elegiac book spins through a galaxy of fundamentalism, poverty and mental illness. Instead of 'coming of age, ' it's a 'coming to terms' story, burning with desire to cut loose from a demon-possessed past. It's an eyewitness account of what happened inside a dark house. Beard's writing is vast, engulfing, accomplished. In many ways An Imperfect Rapture is itself a faith healing." --Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (Milkweed Editions)
"An Imperfect Rapture is transcendent--a story of personal grace and self-realization, one woman's courageous path through the shadows of a fundamentalist youth. The memoir itself is a kind of prayer, a kind of promise, in which the vibrant prose shimmers, as in this passage, with 'a dreamy quality, as though conjured from smoke, trailing the razor edge of reality...' A luminous debut." --Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, author of Presentimiento: A Life in Dreams
"I am deeply shaken and moved by Kelly Beard's conscientious, harrowing, and psychologically acute memoir of her childhood and youth. She evokes the confusing, abusive, fundamentalist world of her impoverished family with an eerie precision and clarity. An Imperfect Rapture is an insightful, courageous book." --Edward Hirsch, author of Gabriel: A Poem and The Living Fire
"From religion to love to death to demons to angels to discovering the secret mechanisms of forgiveness, An Imperfect Rapture is, in fact, rapturously perfect. Kelly Beard's debut memoir is not to be missed." --Connie May Fowler, author of Before Women Had Wings and A Million Fragile Bones
Kelly J. Beard practiced employment discrimination law in the Atlanta area for two decades and has received many honors for her work, including a certificate of recognition from the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence for her service with the Legal Assistance for Victims Project. In 2016, she earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work appears in the Santa Ana River Review, Bacopa Literary Review, Creative Nonfiction, and Five Points. An Imperfect Rapture is her first full-length memoir.
