"In her brilliant collection BECAUSE THE SKY IS A THOUSAND SOFT HURTS, Elizabeth Kirschner fearlessly blends poetry, prose, memoir, and master storytelling into an amalgam that lands like a gut-punch to the soul. I literally found myself taking a deep breath at the beginning and the end of each story, to both steel and re-orient myself. There is nothing easy about the magic Kirschner casts; rather, its complexity serves to illuminate the indomitability of the human spirit in those deep, dark places where it would seem no spirit could survive. This is a devastatingly beautiful book."
-Laura Hurwitz, Author of Disappear Home
"BECAUSE THE SKY IS A THOUSAND SOFT HURTS is a master stroke. Brimming with a hallucinatory spirit, these are less stories and more poetic and metaphysical voyages. In this collection, Kirschner gives voice to the disturbed and hopeful in her characters' psyches-penetrating the repressed, thrust into the sublime. In its earlier stories, Kirschner brilliantly reinvents the simile, with it granting every sentence a double-life; and the later sections prove not only beautiful in their prose, but with keen sense of narrative drive. A literary achievement, this collection rewards re-reading over and over again."
-Jonathan Koven, author of Palm Lines and editor of Toho Journal
"This collection is a powerhouse of language; its sentences sing with heat and precision. Elizabeth Kirschner expertly crafts the unexpected. These stories leave the reader feeling haunted and moved. They are a mediation on loneliness and the unspoken. Kirschner's voice is poetic, lyrical, and singular. A monumental exploration of beauty in unpredictable places. Kirschner exposes the vulnerable and damaged through the lens of hope and redemption. A stunning collection that will stay with me for a long time."
-Erika Nichols-Frazer, Editor, An Anthology of Mental Health Recovery Stories
"Reading Elizabeth Kirschner's BECAUSE THE SKY IS A THOUSANDS SOFT HURTS is like being enveloped in layers of jeweled robes-each layer intricate with emotional depth and magnificent prose. Kirschner's characters brave their lives-family violence; childhood trauma, -in scenes so immediate and chilling, the reader is dared to both look deeply, then look away-in awe."
-Sari Rosenblatt, author of Father Guards the Sheep
"We need more voices like Elizabeth Kirschner's, whose words connote the reality of trauma, illness, neurodivergence, and beauty through