The anthology features unfiltered, first-person perspectives from business owners, first responders, an opera singer, an addiction counselor, a cancer patient and many others.

Editor Lorraine Ash said she "chose to create an anthology of first-person writings and photographs because the pandemic was a story too big to be told in one voice."

Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter won the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award for Outstanding Audiobook of the Year. Pictured here is audiobook producer Walker Vreeland.

Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter audiobook casting director Margie Lenhart.

In the award-winning book Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter, journalist Lorraine Ash gives readers a rare, intimate look at what everyday citizens endured.

ALLENDALE, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES, February 22, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The powerful, multiple award-winning anthology from journalist, author and editor Lorraine Ash, Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter, chronicles life in New York and New Jersey, the nation's first COVID-19 epicenter, during the four terrifying months of March through June 2020.

“Corona City is the real, raw story of the pandemic, not sanitized, not politicized, not spun in any way,” Ash said. “It focuses on the people and how their minds, their hearts, their daily lives — and, in some cases, their life trajectory — changed because of the pandemic. In my journalism career, I’ve always felt that no story is complete without showing how a policy, a trend, a calamity or an event impacts individuals.”

COVID-19 survivors, frontline workers, business owners, journalists, an opera singer, an addiction counselor, a cancer patient and many others — 62 in all — lend their perspectives and lay bare the challenges, fears, losses and triumphs of real people in their own words. Photographs capture the surreal landscapes and scenes in this usually thriving metropolis. Emerging from this mosaic of voices is a grassroots history of an unprecedented time.

“This project is all about telling stories and giving voice to narratives about COVID-19,” Ash added. “I chose to create an anthology of first-person writings and photographs because the pandemic was a story too big to be told in one voice. This account needed to be polyphonic.”

Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter has won four international awards. The audiobook won the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award for Outstanding Audiobook of the Year. Additionally, Walker Vreeland won a 2023 Voice Arts Award for Best Audiobook Producer for his work on Corona City. The paperback won Best Anthology and Best COVID-19 Pandemic Book in the 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

Everyone involved in the project volunteered their efforts, including the publisher, Magic Dog Press; audiobook producer, Walker Vreeland; and audiobook casting director, Margie Lenhart, who recruited 62 professional narrators for the full-cast audiobook, including notable names such as Joe Mantegna of Criminal Minds and Broadway actors Jill Abramovitz, Ron Bohmer, Sandra Joseph, Ta’Nika Gibson and Leah Horowitz.

One hundred percent of the proceeds from sales of Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter go to hunger relief.

About the Author
Lorraine Ash, MA, works as a book editor and author coach specializing in all forms of autobiographical writing. She has penned two memoirs, Life Touches Life: A Mother's Story of Stillbirth and Healing and Self and Soul: On Creating a Meaningful Life. Most recently, she edited the award-winning Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter, an anthology of first-person writings that chronicles life in New Jersey and New York when these two states were the nation's first COVID-19 epicenter. Ash studied at Fordham University and California State University, Long Beach. She lives in New Jersey.

For more information, please visit https://lorraineash.com, or connect with her on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LorraineAshAuthor/ and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092328474969) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorrainevash/).

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Corona-City-Epicenter-Lorraine-Ash/dp/1735724505

Corona City: Voices from an Epicenter
Publisher: Magic Dog Press
ISBN-10: ‎1735724505
ISBN-13: ‎978-1735724508
Available from Amazon.com

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Watch a brief interview with Lorraine Ash here: