The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Writer is ‘over the moon’ about anthology selection
The moon is getting its share of headlines these days — from Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa’s recent invitation for eight members of the public to accompany him as his guest on Elon Musk’s 2023 SpaceX flight “dearMoon” to scientists’ recent talk of building a “lunar ark” (as in Noah’s…), essentially a storage vault that would carry genetic material from millions of Earth’s plants and animals to the moon as a safeguard against potential global annihilation here.
Locally, Abington writer-editor Ann Stolinsky has joined the eyes-onthe-moon crowd. Specifically, Stolinsky’s “Voices in the Wind” is contained in an anthology called “Klarissa Dreams Redux: The Illuminated Anthology,” set to be part of the payload when Pittsburghbased space robotics company Astrobotic Technology, Inc., launches its “Peregrine Mission One” this fall.
The mission’s “moon boxes” will be delivered via a partnership between Astrobotic and global courier-shipper DHL. The Peregrine lander spacecraft will carry payloads from a number of countries. The Klarissa anthology is among the items in a cache called “Writers on the Moon.”
The latter, led by writer Dr. Susan Kaye Quinn, whose husband belongs to Astrobiotic’s Planetary Mobility Team on lunar rovers, is part of payload space personally underwritten by Canadian writer and physicist Samuel Peralta and large enough to accommodate his work and that of some 1,200 artists and writers from around the globe
— all recorded on digital data cards.
Quinn hopes the cargo “will reveal the humanity of today to the readers of tomorrow.”
“Our payload will ride on the first Astrobotic lander to reach the Moon…,” she continues. “It will remain there permanently, a time capsule for the future.”
Stolinsky’s indirect involvement in the project goes back to her submission of “Voices in the Wind” to “Klarissa Dreams Redux…,” a fundraiser for the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation, “probably about a yearand-a-half ago.”
Her reaction when she learned her story was among the literature slated to travel some 238,900 miles through the solar system? Admittedly “trite,” Stolinsky laughs: “Over the moon.”
“I was speechless when I found out about it, and I am not typically speechless — as anyone who knows me can tell you,” she says. “The anthology was a breast cancer fundraiser. It was put together by Shebat Legion, and her mother, Klarissa (Kocsis), did the illustrations. It’s a really beautiful book, and getting to be part of ‘Writers to the Moon’ just added another element to the whole experience. I’ve been writing for several years, so just having my work chosen for an anthology was wonderful.”
As the heads of Gemini Wordsmiths and Celestial Echo Press, Stolinsky and business partner Ruth Littner are no strangers to the writing world. Stolinsky’s
professional resume also includes the publication of three games: A board game called Mindfield, essentially a trivialike Q and A focused on the U.S. military — completed during her 35 years as a logistician for the Department of Defense in Philadelphia — as well as two children’s card games.
But the Northeast Philadelphia native, a graduate of Northeast High School and LaSalle University, never imagined her creative brand would extend to the moon.
“I’m so excited,” Stolinsky says. “This is truly the biggest thing that’s ever happened in my writing career. I mean, how many people can actually say they’ve done something like this. It’s an incredible feeling.”