Minister writes memoir about her experiences abroad and in Kentucky

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By Anne Halliwell

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Marilyn Sewell, the Minister Emerita of the First Unitarian Church and a UK alumnus, is reversing the usual book-to-movie progression.

Sewell graduated from UK with a master’s degree in social work in 1980. Although the job climate was not right for a job in social work, Sewell credited her degree with teaching her interpersonal skills necessary to counsel members of the church.

In 2010, the documentary “Raw Faith” was released, which followed Sewell through the first two years in the First Unitarian Church in Portland, Oregon after she graduated from seminary school. Her memoir, released in digital, print and audio on May 15, fills in her life up to that point.

“It is a standalone,” Sewell said. “It can be read without any context, but I think it’ll be interesting to see what happens to that girl (in the film).”

In the memoir, Sewell detailed her childhood with an alcoholic father and absent mother, strides toward success in college and pressure to conform to a traditional family life when she hadn’t experienced that herself.

“The implication in the title is following where you are led from your intuition and what you know is right,” Sewell said. “I think a lot of people have similar experiences … of feeling lost, of feeling a lot of self-doubt.”

Sewell also dedicated a chapter of the book to former UK professor Wendell Berry, whose creative writing course she took in the late stages of her first marriage. She described Berry as having influenced her writing and personal life.

“I was always interested in writing, but Wendell Berry helped me to understand giving something of myself … and to write from my deepest emotion,” Sewell said. She lists Berry as one of the influences who made writing the “Raw Faith” novel possible.

“All during my academic career in college and graduate school, I was the quintessential straight-A student,” Sewell wrote about Berry’s creative writing course. “My other teachers had all told me how good I was. Wendell was the only one who asked me for more. And he was the only one who taught me anything about writing.”

“Raw Faith: Following the Thread” was conceived as a prequel to the documentary, Sewell said, tracking Sewell from childhood up to the two years encapsulated in film. Sewell said that while the documentary dealt with issues like learning to accept love — the period of time encompasses the early days of her relationship with now-husband George Crandall — the book focuses more on finding her own path in life.

Sewell hopes that the readers will relate to her struggle and that the sections where she overcomes adversity will encourage those that need it to seek help.

“I think the real value of writing a book of any kind is getting the real emotional truth,” Sewell said, “in helping people feel less alone by being honest about your own life.”