Seven Springs:
A Memoir
“A wise, candid, and emotionally powerful memoir.” Kirkus Reviews
One afternoon in the spring of 1972, a Mack truck sped through a residential intersection and collided with a station wagon carrying a young girl and her friend on a ride home from school. The accident shattered the girls’ realities. A blanket of silence fell over them until they reconnected at their twentieth high school reunion. That conversation set me on a twenty-year journey, reflected in seven springs, that reunited me with my past, my self and what I now understand as faith.
Seven Springs is available through Shanti Arts Publishing. Order it here!
-
“Barish’s brave memoir reminds us that understanding our trauma can be a first step toward healing. It also is a beautiful story of a blooming faith.” Marcia Meier, Brevity
One afternoon in the spring of 1972, a Mack truck sped through a residential intersection and collided with a station wagon carrying a young girl and her friend on a ride home from school. The accident shattered the girls’ realities. A blanket of silence fell over them until they reconnected at their twentieth high school reunion. That conversation set me on a twenty-year journey, reflected in seven springs, that reunited me with my past, my self and what I now understand as faith.
“Lyrically and poetically written, Seven Springs captures the author’s journey of healing as she unpacks the unprocessed trauma lingering in her body and soul from a childhood car accident. It is a meditation on life and death, expression of emotions, carrying family wounds and finding strength and courage in friendships, nature and the Jewish spiritual tradition. So many of these themes resonate with me personally though I know that Barish’s story will carry meaning for readers from all backgrounds and experiences.” Gabrielle Kaplan Mayer
“In an era of growing appreciation for the long-term ramifications of trauma, Ellen Blum Barish’s memoir offers a tender exploration of the shock and loss around a childhood car accident. Barish traces the ripples of this seemingly simple trauma into relationships, physical health, emotional wellbeing, and her Jewish faith, making of them a heartfelt, engaging story. I recommend it.” —Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew, author of Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art & Practice of Spiritual Memoir
“I was very touched by the story itself, the beautiful writing and the spiritual resonance that was present.” Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg
Read the reviews of Seven Springs in Kirkus, Brevity, Jewish Chicago, Windy City Reviews, Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, Jewish Boston, Boulder Jewish News, Tiferet and Rick Bailey’s blog and Jule Ward’s blog. Catch excerpts in Tablet and Lilith.
Listen to my animated conversation with Ronit Plank in her podcast “Let’s Talk Memoir.” Watch my conversation with Miriam Bauer sponsored by the North Castle Public Library and this Facebook Live Author Talk with Jill Howe here.
"The Sound of Silence"
At 38 years of marriage, were we a couple with nothing to talk about? A muse on long-term love. Find out more in Storytellers True Stories about Love: Volume 2 (Chicago Story Press).
“Tandem Thoughts”
A tandem bicycle ride in the Netherlands becomes a metaphor for a long-term relationship. “Tandem Thoughts” is one of 25 essays anthologized in Chicago Storytellers: From Stage to Page (Chicago Story Press).
Views from the Home Office Window: On Motherhood, Family and Life
Essays on raising daughters and balancing womanhood with motherhood.
Essays
Flash Nonfiction/Prose Poetry
Reunion, Yellow Arrow Journal, May 2024
The Retelling, Ritualwell, April 2024
The Face of a Flower, Ritualwell, February 2024
(Click here for video of me reading the poem.)
High Tide, Five Minutes, February 2024
Tikkun HaLev, Ritualwell, November 2023
The Offering of the Olives, Ritualwell, November 2023
Desert Dysphoria, Ritualwell, July 2023
Bodies of Water, Ritualwell, July 2023
Our Silent Fire, Tiny Love Stories (New York Times, August 2022)
Essays
Girl with Peacocks: A Triptych, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Winter 2024
The Sound of Silence (True Stories About Love: Volume 2, Chicago Story Press, 2023)
How to Visit (Lilith Magazine, Spring 2022)
The Crash: How an Accident Helped Me Discover My Grandmother’s Jewish Soul (Tablet, June 2021)
Tandem Thoughts (Chicago Storytellers: From Stage to Page, 2020)
The Power of a Circle: Standing Hand-in-Hand to Overcome Discrimination (Tablet, January 2014)
At the Heart of the Matter (Northwestern Alumni Magazine, Spring 2006)
Craft Essays
Deconstructing Didion (Brevity, June 2022)
OMG: I Didn’t Know I Was Writing a Spiritual Memoir! (Brevity, April 2021)
How I Wrestled with a Childhood Trauma and Turned it Into a Book, My Medill Story, March 2021
An Introduction to Thread: Essay and Image (Brevity, June 2015)
Book Reviews
A Review of Ona Gritz’s Present Imperfect (Brevity, December 2021)
A Review of Judy Bolton-Fasman’s Asylum (Brevity, October 2021)
Articles
“Rabbi Andrea London: One of America’s 28 Most Inspiring Rabbis” (The Jewish Daily Forward)
“The Write Way” (Northwestern Magazine)
PRP: A Promising Panacea or a Premature Procedure? (Chicago Health)
Readings
Lighthouse Lit Fest (Denver, CO)
Ragdale (Lake Forest, IL)
North Castle Public Library (Armonk, NY)
Bookends & Beginnings (Evanston, IL)
Evanston Literary Festival (Evanston, IL)
Chicago Jewish Authors Literary Series (Northbrook, IL)
Story Studio Chicago instructor reading (Chicago, IL)
Women and Children First (Chicago, IL)
Barnes & Noble (Skokie, IL)
The Book Cellar (Chicago, IL)
The Book Stall (Winnetka, IL)
Blue Marble Bookstore (Philadelphia, PA)
Editorial Positions
Northwestern University Library’s Footnotes print magazine (Guest Editor/Writer)
McCormick Tribune Foundation Cantigny print magazine (Editor)
Medill School of Journalism Alumni magazine and online content (Editor)
American Bar Association Law Practice Management (Associate Editor)
Health Newsletters Direct (now StayWell Corporation) custom health newsletters (Associate Editor)
Adams Street PublishingToledo Area Parent News & Ann Arbor Parent Press (Editor)
General Learning Corporation Current Health & Your Health Reports (Associate Editor)
Rand McNally & Company Mobil Travel Guides (Assistant Editor)
Premier Hospitals AllianceTechnology Scan print newsletter (Editor)
Medill School of Journalism Magazine Graduate Program Promising Child print magazine (Editor)
Smithsonian Magazine (Editorial Consultant)
I am the founder and editor of Thread, an independent online literary publication featuring short personal essays and flash nonfiction (Stitch) that illuminate moments of human experience by established and emerging writers.
Essays in Thread have been on the Best American Essays Notable list in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020
Four-star review of Thread in The Review Review (2016)
Additional Work
-
Short Story Theatre
Art Center Highland Park
November 2023
Skokie Bike Network
Tales from the Trails
July 2023
Story Sessions
A Brunch of True Stories
May 2023
Skokie Arts Commission
Love Lost and Found
February 2023
Oy! Let Me Tell You!
April 2022
This Much is True
April 2022/April 2019
November 10, 2019
December 18, 2018
March 6, 2018
December 2017, August 2018
December 14, 2015, December 12, 2016
Story Club North
August 6, 2015
Stories from the House of Truth
June 18, 2015
January 18, 2014
July 26, 2013, October 18, 2015, October 7, 2018
-
Ann Arbor Parent Press
American Medical News
Better World Report
Cantigny Magazine
Crain’s Chicago Business
Chicago Jewish News
Current Health 1
Current Health 2
Chicago Parent
Cleveland Parent
Chicago Women in Publishing
Earnshaws
Harvard Medical Letter
Illinois Foodservice News
Illinois Meeting & Events
Kirkus Discoveries
Law Practice Management
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
Tribune Media Services
Mobil Travel Guides
Medill Magazine
Medical Economics
Newsweek
North Shore MagazineNorthwestern
Self
Special Reports
Science Challenge
The Chicago Tribune Family Section
The Chicago Tribune Womanews
The Chicago Tribune Special Sections
The Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine
The Chicago Tribune Good Health Section
The Northwestern Daily
Toledo Area Parent News
Writing!
Your Health & Fitness
Your Health & Safety
Your Health Report
Your Health & Safety Report
-
All essays below were broadcast on WBEZ/Chicago Public Radio
“Writer reflects on father’s role in fight for civil rights in Chicago”
January 16, 2012“Impermanence and the true meaning of Sukkot”
October 12, 2011“Writer won’t be skipping any Jewish services”
September 28, 2011“Staving off the darkness of shorter, winter days”
December 14, 2009“Finding the real meaning in Passover”
April 8, 2009“The perfect card”
December 2008“A little chat with money”
April 14, 2008 -
Allstate
Advocate Health Care
American Medical Association
American Bar Association
American Association of Retired Persons
American Hospital Association
Association of University Technology Managers
Bounty Sampling Corporation
Council for Jewish Elderly
DuPont Corporation
Evanston Hospital
General Learning Corporation
Illinois Restaurant Association
Johns Hopkins Project RESTORE
McDonalds’ Corporation
McCormick Tribune Foundation
National Association of Women’s Health Professionals
National Textbook Corporation
Premier Hospitals Alliance
Rand McNally
St. Francis Hospital
Staywell Corporation
Whittle Communications