“So many women I have known struggled for too long to give themselves permission to speak up, to have a voice, to shape their own identity, assert themselves as equals. And too many men I have known wish that women would give themselves permission to just shut up.

But throughout my adult life, from the 1970s until now, more than a quarter century into a new millennium, nothing in our culture has cheered my heart more than to see women come into their own strength, to step up, stand firm, and throw off the burdens of submission and silence, whether forced or not, to reconcile the past and its demons and finally, after so much self-doubt, to move forward against the winds that would hold them back, complete and lovely and whole.

I confess I love sassy women, and Amy Lou Jenkins is their queen.”

— Bob Shacochis
National Book Award–winning author of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul

“This exciting memoir charts the author’s attempt to arrive at her best, least deferential self through a series of hair-raising escapes. Her courage and honesty are fierce models to emulate. She never gives up, and we the readers are her beneficiaries.”

— Phillip Lopate
Editor of The Art of the Personal Essay

“This is an immensely wise and moving memoir. Amy Lou Jenkins is like everything good about the American Midwest compacted into a single human. She writes about hard things, emotional things, and personal things with equal force and felicity—and, yes, always wonderfully sassily.”

— Tom Bissell
Author of Creative Types and Other Stories

“Like the barn swallow whirling over sunset waters that Amy Lou Jenkins describes in her memoir, she, too, overcame one peril after another in her long-distance journey of arrival. For all women with ‘sass’ seeking to find their wings, read her story and be inspired.”

— Marina Richie
Author of Feathered Forest: Aloft with Birds in Ancient Trees and winner of the 2024 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Natural History Writing

“A spirit of resilience is at the center of Amy Lou Jenkins’ memoir, The Alchemy of Sass: we are witness to one woman’s ability to grit her teeth and endure every challenge that comes her way. If resilience is the heart of the book, then compassion is its backbone. Compassion for family, for the patients she tends to, yes, but mostly for the child she was, the confused and trapped young mother, and finally for the woman, gloriously liberated.”

— Debra Gwartney
Author of I Am a Stranger Here Myself

“Amy Lou Jenkins’ memoir is a poignant and unblinking look into a rich and deep soul. Her recollections are authentic and compelling. I commend her courage and fearlessness and encourage you to dig in.”

— Michael O’Keefe
Actor & Writer

“Amy Lou Jenkins shares a journey of discovery both intimate and inviting in The Alchemy of Sass. Her clear-eyed search for the truth of her parentage, her complicated striving towards growth, and her acknowledgement of the costs of silence transform her unique story into a universal tale. Alchemy, that mysterious power of transformation, runs through this memoir with a river’s force as Jenkins dives ever deeper into the swirling eddies of how culture, family, and personal choice shapes us. Jenkins uses her voice as her super power, unlocking the legitimacy of her true self more and more with each passing year and each hard lesson learned. If we listen, we’ll recognize how a little more sass and a lot less silence will lead us where our hearts need to go.”

— Joanne Nelson
Author of My Neglected Gods

“Amy Lou Jenkins’ memoir, The Alchemy of Sass, is a book I read in one sitting, unable to stop until I had reached the thoughtful and satisfying ending. The reader follows Amy through her difficult beginnings with hard-drinking parents, through her hard-working adulthood, and through the many questions she asks herself as she learns to find the courage to release her real voice, her voice of ‘sass.’ This is a deeply compelling book, a book I will remember and ruminate over for a long time.”

— Sandra Worsham
Author of Going to Wings and Patterns

“Amy Lou Jenkins’ book The Alchemy of Sass hooked me from the first sentence: ‘I’ve had five last names and none fit.’ Right away, I knew she had quite the story to tell. And I was right.

With a mix of down-to-earth storytelling and sentences so beautiful or profound they stop me in my tracks, Jenkins weaves the story of her life, trusting her knowing and her voice against all odds. Her writing is vivid. As a reader, I am in the scenes with her as she gets shut down again and again by those who love and/or have power over her. But she is no quivering wallflower. Over and over again, she pulls herself up by her bootstraps, summons up her courage, takes charge, and creates a life that is on her terms, is in alignment with who she is and what she knows, and develops a voice that demands to be heard.

The Alchemy of Sass is a book that many women will resonate with, learn from, and be inspired by. I highly recommend it!!!”

— Linda Scholten
Author of the international bestseller Who We Think We Are

“‘I’m not here to play the victim and rant about all the difficulties in my life. I’m here to unravel the identity I was forced to wear, one that never fit. I want to live shaped by my choices and my values and the love I hold for myself and others.’ This statement is a call to arms not only for Amy Lou Jenkins, but for the thousands and thousands of women looking to escape the bonds of a society even now, in the 21st century, attempts to shape them as they do not wish to be shaped, to infantilize them, to keep them quiet and submissive. Many women will find Jenkins experience to be much like their own, and her path to be one they can follow. Highly recommended.”

— John R. Coats
Author of Original Sinners: Why Genesis Still Matters

“This is a book about perseverance in the face of so many odds. Amy Lou Jenkins not only survived but thrived. My jaw dropped several times.”

— Mel C. Miskimen
Author of Cop’s Kid