Like a dragonfly, I have exited the traumatic nymph waters and molted to new growth.
A Courageous Story
When Mary Beth and her family moved to the East Coast to live in a home she’d chosen, she assumed she had landed in heaven. Her husband took a teaching job at a small Christian college, while she took care of the three children in her castle—and found a shining star in Melo, her husband’s female student.
A year later, Mary Beth found her life upended as her husband grew jealous of her relationship with Melo—which was soaring from friendship into love. After relocating to Minneapolis, she found her new feelings of freedom and love were still mixed with paralyzing self-doubt—and as Melo wandered further away, Mary Beth realized she needed to embrace her internal strength to find true peace and liberation.
Rooted in the struggles of coming out in the eighties and nineties, Imprint is a candid account of escaping brutality for self-love, and embodies the fight for self-identity, independence, and equality that women and members of the LGBTQ+ community still face today.
Available as on Kindle, and Audible on Amazon
News for Friends of The Loft
Congratulations to Friend of the Loft Mary Beth Spray on the release of her memoir, Imprint: A Woman’s Journey from Trauma to Freedom. The book has recently been reviewed by both the Los Angeles Book Review and the Chicago Book Review, each praising Spray’s courage and clarity in tracing a path from pain toward self-discovery and healing.
A longtime participant in Loft classes, including those led by teaching artist Mary Carroll Moore, Spray credits the Loft community as a meaningful part of her writing journey. You can learn more about her work at marybethspray.com and read her latest essays on Substack.
“Spray writes with a raw, unflinching honesty that ultimately uplifts. Imprint is both personal testimony and a universal call to freedom.”
—Los Angeles Book Review
See Inside
Who’s Mary Beth?
In 2011, after reading Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way, I took on the goal of writing the story of my first marriage, and how I went from a weak, naïve young wife to a strong single bisexual mom. The writing process became a platform of immense emotional healing. I joined groups in person and online, where I began to take the armor off and stop mirroring others to find agency. I worked with editors to get my writing in a submittable form for publishing. I am presently enjoying posting with other writers on Substack.com, and especially reading Elizabeth Gilbert's website about Unconditional Love.
While earning a BA in French, I lived a year in Paris, France, attended the Alliance française and the Scola Cantorum de Paris for ballet, and hitchhiked to neighboring countries. The year in France and traveling to neighboring countries opened my eyes to a shift in my politics and worldview, but mostly I felt a tinge of emancipation from my conservative upbringing . . . the freedom to spend days in front of the paintings I had only seen in books, to walk in gardens where the landscape was art.
After earning a master’s degree in second languages and cultures from the University of Minnesota, I taught for twenty-five years in Minneapolis Public Schools. As a teacher and single mother, I supported myself and three children, and wrote grants for students of low economic status to participate in trips abroad. When I retired, I not only began writing this autobiographical novel, but also realized my dream of creating pottery at Northern Clay Center. Before moving to Minneapolis, I taught creative dance and ballet in my home as a young mother.
I now gather monthly with a small group of empath teachers who initially supported my Artist Way goal. I live in Minneapolis with my husband of twenty-six years, enjoying gardening and traveling.
Now available at Itasca Books and fine bookstores everywhere.
© 2024 Mary Beth Spray | Back to Top