By Staff
April 19, 2023: You are invited to attend a book event/reading at Womrath Bookshop featuring two Bronxville High School alumni - - Amy Turner (BHS '71) and Lee Stockdale (BHS '70). The event is on Thursday, April 27 at 7:00 pm.
Turner has written a memoir entitled On the Ledge and Stockdale has written a collection of poems entitled Gorilla. Both are profoundly personal stories exploring childhood trauma's impacts with understanding, insight, and hope.
On The Ledge, A Memoir
Fifty-five years after Amy Turner's father climbed out on a hotel ledge and threatened to jump—a story that received national news coverage—Amy is convinced she's dealt with all the psychological reverberations of her childhood. Then she steps into a crosswalk and is mowed down by a pickup truck—an accident that nearly kills her.
Ultimately, Amy takes a remarkable emotional journey. She starts by unraveling the trauma of her own brush with death—and then, unexpectedly, goes on to heal the childhood trauma buried far deeper.
On the Ledge is also, in part, a story of Amy's coming of age in Bronxville, NY during the '50s and sometimes turbulent '60s.
Poignant, intimate, and at times surprisingly humorous, On the Ledge offers proof that no matter how far along you are in life, it's never too late to find yourself.
Amy Turner was born in Bronxville, New York and graduated from the Bronxville schools. She holds a degree in political science from Boston University and a Juris Doctor degree from New York Law School. After practicing law for twenty-two years, she changed careers at forty-eight and became a seventh grade social studies teacher. She lives in East Hampton, New York, with her husband.
Lee Stockdale grew up in Coral Gables, Bronxville, and Dublin when his father was Ambassador under longtime friend, John F. Kennedy. Lee's father committed suicide ten days after the assassination. Poems in Gorilla trace Lee's arc from trauma to healing through therapy, love and support of family, and faith in God.
Lee has just won first place out of almost 18,000 poets in United Kingdom National Poetry Prize.
Lee spent thirty years in the Army and retired as a Colonel in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He earned his MFA from Queens University, Charlotte; BA from the University of Washington; JD from Case Western Reserve; and Master's in Strategic Studies from the US Army War College. He and Gail, a potter, have five children, five grandchildren, and make their home in the Western North Carolina mountains.
Website: www.leestockdale.com