2024 Best Book Awards Winner for best cover in nonfiction
“Jia Apple gives us a mosaic novel, "The Tell," comprised of 365 days taken from across a life to read as a single day. Apple's voice rises as one of the Plains great voices, along the likes of Willa Cather and Allison Russell. She restlessly voices the changing moods and broken seasons of fear, frustration and doubt and sees them ripen into creativity, wonder, and joy. A monumental achievement.” |
“Jia. She is our very own real life Wonder Woman. The Tell is her back story. Who she is now was chiseled from the heart-breaking, gut-wrenching environment she was born into. Jia was created to survive her many battles and then teach through her art, stories, and paintings, that to fight we will emerge wounded, yet those wounds become our warrior marks, and we too become a Wonder. “ |
“I loved this wonderfully touching memoir about the life, growth, and evolving perspective of Jubilee Given. It is a potent narrative, conveying the balancing act of a person constantly striving to do their best and find their way to love and self-acceptance. Despite wading through thickets of difficulty and deluges of abuse, Jubilee’s harrowing path leads her to find love and joy in life, and subsequently to the joyful rewards that can be found in family and community. Most importantly, Jubilee finds herself; her happiness with what she discovers made me feel there is hope for all of us to do the same.” |
