AUSTIN, Texas, May 5, 2009 – Austin Community College Professor Amy Wink, Ph.D., has authored “Tandem Lives: The Texas Frontier Diaries of Henrietta Baker Embree and Tennessee Keys Embree.” The book was published in April by the University of Tennessee Press.

“Tandem Lives” (University of Tennessee Press, 448 pages, hardcover, $56) gives readers an intimate portrait of two frontier Texas women in the mid-19th century.

Wink edited the diaries of the two Belton women, who were the first and second wives of a physician/slaveholder, Dr. John Embree. While her book was in the publication process, Wink was contacted by a descendent of Tennessee Embree who provided her access to the original diaries of both women.

“I hope the story within the diaries, as well as the story of the diaries themselves, will captivate readers,” Wink says. “The personal nature of diaries challenges readers to view these women with compassion and to understand the complexities of the human experience.”

The diaries demonstrate how these women coped with issues like domestic violence, childrearing, faith, frailty, and mortality. They most significantly show how Henrietta and Tennessee empowered themselves through writing to construct a personal identity.

“Both women used private writing to work out their ideas, their fears, and their strategies for living through a host of daily struggles and outright threats to their safety,” she says. “Ultimately, these diaries reveal the significance of literacy on self-determination and spiritual survival.”

Wink teaches English Composition and American Literature as an ACC adjunct professor. She is also author of “She Left Nothing In Particular: The Autobiographical Legacy of Nineteenth-Century Women’s Diaries.” She has written for InsideHigherEd.com and other publications. Visit her website, amywink.com.

Readers can learn more about “Tandem Lives” at a companion website, embreediaries.com. For information on obtaining a review copy of the book, contact Cheryl Carson, [email protected].

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About the Austin Community College District (austincc.edu):
ACC, Central Texas’ community college, is the primary gateway to higher education and career training for residents in eight counties. The college provides access to affordable, quality education. ACC enrolls more than 35,700 credit students, offering university transfer courses, two-year associate degrees, certificates, Early College Start, access programs that get students “college-ready,” and continuing education. At ACC you can “Start here. Get there.”