Ashland author Michelle St. Romain spent decades wondering about a small green jewelry box.
Her great-grandmother left it to her when she was 7 years old. The box was empty, but St. Romain couldn't shake the feeling that it held stories waiting to be told.
"There was nothing in the jewelry box, but I remember opening it and just feeling this sense that, wow, what stories are here?" she said. "I've always been fascinated with ancestor stories. Where do we come from, and who are the people before us, and what are we carrying that we don't even know?"
That question became the foundation of "Song of Belonging," St. Romain's debut novel. The story follows Alice, a young journalist whose life changes after she opens the same jewelry box years later. As unexplained experiences begin to unfold, Alice unknowingly starts experiencing memories that belong to her great-grandmother Grace, whose story unfolds in 1934 Louisiana. The novel moves between the two timelines as past and present begin to intersect.
St. Romain describes the novel as magical realism, a genre that blends ordinary life with extraordinary events. Rather than creating a fantasy world, she uses unexplained experiences to explore how people carry the memories, loves and wounds of earlier generations.
"I think it's a genre that captures the truest essence of our experiences as humans because it pushes on the walls of reality," she said. "When we allow ourselves to open to something bigger than ourselves, there's a lot more connection."
The story also reflects St. Romain's own roots. She grew up in southern Louisiana in a French Louisiana family, with relatives in both the Lake Charles area and New Orleans. The region's history, culture and storytelling traditions helped shape the novel's setting and voice.
Although she studied English and creative writing, St. Romain spent nearly four decades working in the nonprofit sector before returning to fiction. She set a personal goal of publishing a novel before turning 60 and met that deadline with Song of Belonging.
Underlying the novel is St. Romain's interest in ancestral memory. She points to research in epigenetics suggesting people may inherit the effects of trauma across generations.
"I believe that this is true, that we carry some trauma memories, but I also think we carry the wisdom to heal from that," she said.
Guest
- Michelle St. Romain, poet, author of "Song of Belonging"
