Columnist publishes anthology of writing
She’s been a staple on the Belizean media scene for over a decade be it via radio, print or television. Today, Belizean writer Karla Heusner is the newly published author of a book entitled “Food for Thought”. Already the recipient of rave reviews, Food for Thought is a collection of articles Heusner has written over the last four years. As she puts it, it was quite a task to wade through the mountain of work she has compiled, but Karla is confident that her readers will be satisfied with the selection.
Karla Heusner, Author, Food for Thought
“I hope they find themselves in their somewhere, or people they know, not literally necessarily, although a lot of people I know are in the book and they may forget that they were in a column and may be a little startled when they see their name. But I think what is happening is that it is resonating with people some of the things I write because it is about people they know or types of people they know. And in particular there are two in their that I had that kind of reaction to, one was “There Goes the Neighbourhood” when I talked about things going on in my neighbourhood that prevented me from sleeping or living the way I wanted to live. And I had so many come up to me and say, “I thought you were talking about my neighbourhood!” And another one was “Mothers I Know”, which I wrote just as a Mother’s Day piece, but I talked about different women that I found their stories very inspiring. And I had a lot of people say, “It was like you were writing about my mom, or my aunt, or my cousin!” So there are some universals in there. I think that while it may seem specific to the Belize in some cases, I’m trying to look at universal themes and universal problems.”
“We go through things together, like hurricanes and elections and we all want to have sort of a common thing going on. And today when I was flipping through it, the one piece that I think I may be the most proud of is one I call “Family of Belize” and I wrote that one when a good friend of mine committed suicide. I talked about how the whole city practically turned out for this man and he had no idea he had so many friends. And that the reasons why we live in Belize is because of our family, our clan, and our sense of community and that those reasons are the same now no matter what else is going on, that there were then or fifty years ago, and that’s what we have to hang on to.”
Food for Thought will be on sale this Saturday at its official book launch scheduled for ten until noon at the Image Factory in Belize City. Retail price is twenty dollars. In addition to her other writing duties, Karla Heusner works as news editor for this broadcast every Friday and Monday.
