Books by Anya
Written word
Stories Woven from Art, Life & Imagination
Discover books that explore creativity, personal journeys, and the unseen connections between art and life. Each work invites you into a world of stories, ideas, and inspiration—created to be read, felt, and remembered.
new book by anya doll
Holding the Fire
Loving someone with serious mental health challenges creates layers of painful stories. Because of love, there are also gold nuggets of moments and memories sometimes deeply buried. A complex life is built. In the wake of my husband choosing to end his life, stories presented themselves in nonfiction as well as allegory, and some as visual images. This manuscript is a layered approach to memoir. It consists of essays about our lives, six allegorical stories, and twenty-eight images of my art. Holding the Fire is about love, chaos and the power of stories we tell ourselves and the world, and those told to and about us..
This book needed to be created to tell a hidden story beneath why my husband made his choice. It is for people who have lost someone to suicide, who may (as I think we all do) feel there must be more to the story than just suffering and chaos. It is for friends, family and supporters of people on those journeys. The hope is to offer insight into the reality of losing someone who chooses their end.
Holding the Fire leads the reader to reflect upon their own stories too, while mining for gold, even in the middle of chaos and uncertainty. It is for people who themselves have felt the weight of depression or mental illness. It is a book about resilience, about looking at the stories we tell and asking ourselves, “do they harm or do they help?’ It is a book about changing the story.
About the Author
Anya Doll earned the title "expert by experience," having loved a spouse with a serious mental illness who chose to end his life. The middle child of seven, born to a Midwestern farmer who was also the town banker and his city-born, artist wife, Anya learned early to dig for the gold in the middle of chaos. She earned a dual BA in elementary education and theology. Through decades of adventurous employment, she honed her visual art practice and love of story. In 1998, she began writing every morning before getting out of bed. Her visual art resides in places across the US and internationally and enjoyed representation at the Denver Art Museum in 2021. Her public speaking weaves images of her art with lessons of the human condition. She teaches her meditative art practice, process painting, and yoga and guides others through reflection upon their own stories.
holding the fire
More about the book
We can be powerful beyond our grasp as much as we are vulnerable to even our very own power. The image of holding one’s own fire, the light and heat of one’s being in hands that are made of wood, for me, is the best metaphor for what it is to be human in this world. Holding the Fire compels us to reflect on the stories we tell about ourselves and about our world, searching as we do to find where love resides beneath the layers—whether external influences or internal beliefs—that can cover who we truly are born to be. Part memoir, part art book, Holding the Fire weaves essays and allegorical stories with images of the author’s art to illustrate the power of stories in our lives. The central character is a woman who found the love of her life in a man tormented by living in this world with a serious mental illness that took him away from her slowly and then abruptly and completely.
Contact Me
Contact Me
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I so appreciate you taking a look at my work. Thank you.
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In gratitude and peace,
Anya
My work, whether written word or in visual art, doesn’t just tell stories; it is about the power of stories and our connection to each other and to ourselves through stories. But it is also about stories as powerful revelatory agents that can foster chaos in individual minds and in collective cultures. In youth we must over-adapt; we must adjust to life in a world that is not our own to run. Then, in adulthood, we adjust once again to discovering ourselves independently in the world by shedding old stories in order to uncover our true selves and purpose.