Diversity shines in Tallahassee writer Faith Eidse's compelling memoir
"Deeper than African Soil" is Faith Eidse’s compelling memoir of fleeing Congo’s 1964 revolution as a child separated from missionary parents, taking leprosy therapy in secret, and surviving boarding school trauma.
The memoir won Florida State University's Kingsbury Award and the FSU English Department’s best thesis of the year. Reviewers called it “honest,” “courageous,” and “a killer of crossing cultures and living a vivid African life.”
Eidse and her sisters — Hope, Charity and Grace — absorbed the rich village cultures of Congo, Canada, and the U.S. as daughters of a linguist-theologian and “Congo’s Mother Teresa.”
A "Third Culture Kid (TCK)," Eidse formed her identity from aspects of her first culture (Dutch Mennonite) as well as second and third cultures. Eidse demonstrates five senses recall in her opening voice: “Congo had a way of drawing you in…begging you to enter, bare-foot, short-sleeved, long hair loose, lifting on currents dense with sour manioc, smoked caterpillars, ripe mangoes…never mind the jiggers.”
Exploring her story compelled Eidse to collect other TCK memoirs and, with co-editor Nina Sichel, produce "Unrooted Childhoods" (2004, Nicholas Brealey/ Hachette) and "Writing Out of Limbo" (2011, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Inc., UK). Both anthologies became Princeton textbooks, and recently "Writing Out of Limbo" was translated into Korean for children who have experienced a wave of globalization and complex identities.
The book launch for "Deeper than African Soil" will be held at My Favorite Books in Tallahassee’s Market Square, at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 15, and will include a free memoir workshop. The public is invited to get their memoirs started with guided writing exercises and a fillable form.
Eidse will also appear with local authors in the Tallahassee Writers Association book sales tent at Word of South, Saturday, April 22, 11 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Next month, Eidse will join an authors’ panel at Midtown Reader, “Authors Talking: Writing from Hurt and Hardship with Hope,” on Wednesday, May 24, at 7 p.m. The panel features three authors touching on six faith traditions (Mennonite/Methodist, Catholic/Jewish, Protestant-Christian/Islamic).
In addition to Eidse, the panel will include memoirist and poet Suzan Kurdak (on overcoming a mentally abusive marriage, depression, and low self-worth), and novelist Anne Meisenzahl, MFA (FSU). Her novel, "Long Time Gone," explores the priest abuse scandal and forging a new relationship with the church for a more spiritual and centered life.
Eidse said she’s grateful to her FSU professors for the academic freedom to explore gender, diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Third Culture Kids live enriched, adventurous, complicated lives," she said. "We've witnessed history close-up, lived chaos and upheaval. For me, riding the iron rails of memory — all five senses open — was a way to organize and heal those memories. It helped release pent-up feelings, let go of repression and address problems.”
If you go
What: The book launch for "Deeper than African Soil"
When: 1 p.m. Saturday, April 15
Where: My Favorite Books in Tallahassee’s Market Square
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee writer Faith Eidse launches 'Deeper than African Soil'
