When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.
— Edward Tiller
Searching for Spenser – A Memoir
By Author Margaret Kramar
Parenting can be a struggle; especially parenting a disabled child. In this flawlessly written memoir, Kramar describes championing her son, diagnosed with Sotos syndrome, through his short life. She examines the experience of loving and losing a child and reminds us that there is a way forward through the grief. Kramar’s memoir offers guidance, wisdom and inspiration. An amazing story of redemption and hope.
In Searching for Spenser, Kramar explores how she was transformed through the experience of Spenser’s life and death. Writing became a creative outlet for her grief and allowed her to share her story with others. “Star Wars,” a chapter from Searching for Spenser, appeared in Echoes from the Prairie in 2013; “The Birthday Party,” another chapter, appeared in Exceptional Parent magazine in 2008, and a short story about Spenser was anthologized in Reading Lips: And Other Ways to Overcome a Disability published by Apprentice House in 2008.
What makes a good parent? What defines success? How do we face loneliness and despair? Kramar searches for the answers to these questions after her son Spenser is diagnosed with Soto syndrome. She is forced to look honestly at her life as a single parent of two sons—one who is disabled—whom she fiercely loves.
Kramar’s work has appeared in Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages, The Grinnell Magazine, and numerous print and epublications.
And we encourage you to buy from your local bookstore.
An Interview with author Margaret Kramar
"Every day is a gift." Margaret Kramar reminds us in this lively and honest Interview with an Author. Margaret is an educator and author whose creative nonfiction has appeared in "Joy Interrupted: An Anthology on Motherhood" and "Loss and Echoes from the Prairie." Her recently released memoir, "Searching for Spenser" is available from https://anamcara-press.com/ and online retailers.
Anamcara Press is a small independent publisher publishing fewer than ten select works each year. As a boutique press, we partner with authors to help them achieve their vision and find their audience.
Book Reviews
“This book is a reminder that living with a most difficult and painful thing gives us choices. Making the right one makes all the difference. Margaret Kramar has written this story for all the right reasons. And no matter who you are, you will find yourself in these pages.”
~ Maryemma Graham, University of Kansas Distinguished Professor & Founder/Director, Project on the History of Black Writing.
“Kramar is honest in her recollections—she is a narrator strong with love, but often bewildered by what fate had her take on. Spencer is realized a three-dimensional human being, sometimes frustrated with the difficulties of his disability, sometimes in love with the life he eagerly grasps. After his death, his devastated mother must once again abandon her previous expectations and dreams, and, with new insight and a fuller, wiser heart, learn to take joy in new ones.”
~ Laura Moriarty, Associate Professor University of Kansas, is the author of five novels including, The Chaperone (Riverhead Books 2013), and American Heart (HarperCollins, 2018).
Education
Grinnell College,
Grinnell, Iowa, B.A.
Spanish Literature
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa, M.A.
Journalism
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas, Ph.D.
English
Creative Dissertation:
My Son the Actor
Publications
Lifestyle Editor, The Denison Newspapers, Denison, Iowa
Numerous News, Feature and Profile Stories, March, 1976 to April, 1977
“Is There a Place for You in the Theatre?” Topeka Magazine, May, 1980, 9-13.
“Running with Spenser.” We Need Not Walk Alone Spring 2008: 21-23.
“They Spoke to Her.” The Topeka Capital-Journal 23 March 2008.
“The Birthday Party.” Exceptional Parent Nov. 2008: 34.
“My Son the Actor.” Reading Lips: And Other Ways to Overcome a Disability. Ed. Scharper, Diane and Philip Scharper. Baltimore: Apprentice House, 2008. 159-165.
“The Dining Hall.” The Grinnell Magazine Fall 2008. 8 Oct. 2010.
“The Rotary Club.” Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages. Ed. Smallwood, Carol and Cynthia Brackett-Vincent. Charleston, SC: All Things That Matter, 2009. 165-167.
“The Reunion.” Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages. Ed. Smallwood Carol and Cynthia Brackett-Vincent. Charleston, SC: All Things That Matter, 2009, 233- 235.
“The Soap Opera” and “The Dining Hall.” Joy Interrupted: An Anthology on Motherhood and Loss. Ed. Melissa Miles McCarter. Fat Daddy’s Farm, 2013.
“Star Wars” and “On the Trail,” Echoes from the Prairie: A Collection of Short Memoirs, Ed. Nicole Muchmore, Great Plains Writing Group, 2013
“They See Us,” Paper Tape Magazine, “Hauntings,” January 8, 2015
Presentations
“A New Home: Who’ll Fail? Tracking the Trails of Caroline Kirkland and Four Kansas Pioneer Women,” Romance Languages and Literatures Conference, Binghamton, NY 14-15 March 2008.
“Dancing Bears,” Reading, John F. Kennedy: History, Memory, and Legacy: An Interdisciplinary Conference at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 25-27 September 2008.
“Cells, Catacombs and Coffins: Charting the Destiny of Race Relations in Intruder in the Dust,”
Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, Oxford, MS, 19-23 July 2009.
“The Rotary Club” and “The Reunion,” Readings from Passages, The University of Maine, Farmington, ME, 22 March 2010.
“On the Trail,” Reading from Echoes of the Prairie: A Collection of Short Memoirs, New Generations Society of Lawrence, Watkins Museum, Lawrence, 11 February 2014.
Awards
The National Indie Excellence Awards
Searching for Spenser
Winner 2019
“The Soap Opera” Memoir, First Place Award, 2009 Kansas Authors Club Contest-District 2, 9
May 2009.
“The Soap Opera” Memoir, Honorable Mention, 2009 Kansas Authors Club Literary Contest,
18 October 2009.
“An Interview with Donna Reed,” Feature Writing, Third Honorable Mention, Herbert Bayard Swopes Memorial Awards, 1976.
Coverage of News about Women, Second Place. Best Feature Story, Honorable Mention. Iowa Press Association Better Newspaper Contest Awards, April 22, 1977.