About the Book

On December 28, 2017 I was having a holiday drink with my partner and her friend. Around 6pm, I got up, went into the bathroom, and when I came out I told them “something’s not right” pointing to my upper chest. Shortly thereafter, I fell back in my chair. My eyes were rolling and I lost consciousness. My partner called 911.

I had a massive heart attack at age 64.

My family was told that I probably would not survive this event. I was in the hospital for over two weeks. I was mentally out of it much of that time. When I went home, I was in a fog for several months: felt like people were coming at me and the walls were closing in. Was paranoid, and my memory had vanished. It took many, many months for me to begin to feel normal.

About the Author

Tish Pearlman is a poet, writer, broadcast journalist and community and political activist originally from Manhattan Beach, California. For 15 years she was host of the award-winning arts/public affairs public radio interview show “Out of Bounds,” which suspended production in December 2019. www.outofboundsradioshow.com

In the 1970’s and 80’s Pearlman was actively writing and gave many readings at political and literary events on the central California coast. Her work also appeared in many literary journals and magazines including Street Cries, Adventures in Poetry Anthology, Carousel Quarterly, and Latitude/20. She began to write poetry again in 2009. Her current work has appeared in The Healing Muse Literary Journal (2010-2022), The Ithaca Times, The Syracuse Post-Dispatch Healthy CNY Magazine, Conversations Across Borders Literary Magazine, Earth’s Daughters and The Iconoclast Literary Journal. One of her poems was accepted for publication in an anthology titled The Art of Medicine in Metaphors, published in January 2013.

Her collection, re-telling her near-death heart surgery experience, is a chapbook entitled “The
Fix Is In” and was published by Finishing Line Press in January 2012.

Her full-length collection “Afterlife” was published by Foothills Publishers in May 2014.

Her new collection is Leaves Falling Backwards.

She was the 2013 & 2014 Poet Laureate of Tompkins County, NY.

Pearlman has given many solo and group readings/ classes throughout the region, including, Elmira College, Buffalo Street Books, TCPL. GIAC. She has also been part of The Healing Muse Literary Journal annual tours/readings from 2010-present. She has also organized several group readings at the annual Spring Writes Literary Festival in Ithaca NY.