Are you an Author?

Yes

Name of your Book, if applicable

Cooling Well Water: A Collection of Work By A Bi-Polar African-American Woman

What is the genre of your book?

Non-Fiction, Poetry, Religion & Spirituality, Self-Help, Educational

Give us a brief desciption of your book, if applicable

This book reveals one woman's journey after suffering a severe nervous breakdown with a permanent diagnosis of Bi-Polarity. Through my testimony, the book is a "show" journey as I build my relationship with God and raise awareness about mental illness.

It include over 50 poems that reflect how God is real. There are also short prose highlighting the gift God anointed me with.

Readers will "see" how God is real and know that through Christ, we can do all things.

What inspired you to write your book? if applicable

When I originally wrote the book, it was for myself and my circle of family and friends. However, God asked me to take the message beyond that territory to educate others abut mental illness in the African-American community and disspell myths about the mental illness.

Through showing how I learned to cope and manage Bi-Polarity, readers will be inspired to live a full and productive life.

Why should readers read your book? If applicable

In the African-American community, we suffer from many heartaches and pains. We black women, in particular, carry a lot of burdens. These burdens become the source of our depression.

However, culturally, we do not speak of this because of the shame that something is wrong with us. We join the greater society by attaching a stigma to mental illness because of lack of information.

We are also influenced by negative portrayals of people with a mental illness on the media (i.e., violence). The reality is that more people live productive lives with the illness, than people depicted in the media who also have the illness.


By telling my story, I hope to inspire more acceptance of the illness and to educate our community about prevention and management.

What is your web address? if applicable

http://blackplanet.com/agnesblevine