The Unfurling Frond: A Memoir of Belonging and Becoming, by Rebecca Beardsall

“A love story, a family memoir, a travel- and home-finding narrative: Beardsall traverses genre to explore the multiple strands of her becoming. Inspiring, moving, and inventive, The Unfurling Frond is a joyous read.”
–Kristiana Kahakauwila, author of This is Paradise: Stories

“Beardsall is an endless, relentless seeker. Part love letter to a former self, part love letter to a
destined partnership, The Unfurling Frond feels most like a love letter to New Zealand.”
— Jefferson Navicky, author of Head of Island Beautification for the Rural Outlands

“Such a joy to read!”
–Brenda Miller, author of A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form

“A thoughtful meditation on the spaces we inhabit, on how they define us and we define them.”
–Liz Prato, author of Kids in America: A Gen X Reckoning

Time and space weave the past and present into the story like an unfurling frond holding layers of memories in a single moment.

The land holds a story: of time, of generations. Rebecca Beardsall’s transnational narrative, The Unfurling Frond, investigates land and place as physical space, home, and moments in time. The collection wrestles with the concept of personal transformation through time with the added complexity of settler colonization.

As she travels between her two selves/two moments in time, her histories/two nations’ histories, Beardsall senses and feels where her physical body aligns with the spiritual, telling her that she is home, that she belongs.

Longlisted for the C & R Press – Nonfiction Award

Longlisted for the Santa Fe Writers Project – Literary Awards Program