the dirt artist by Jolene Shannon (Signed Copy)

The Dirt Artist is a raw and intimate true story of survival, resilience, and rebirth.

For seventeen years, a marriage built on love and music slowly became overtaken by mental illness, violence, and abuse. From the outside, life appeared whole and stable. Inside, it was quietly unraveling. With unflinching honesty and deep compassion, this memoir traces what it means to endure a life that looks beautiful while becoming unsafe, and the courage it takes to finally leave.

After escape comes the long work of healing. In a small town in Tennessee, a new life is built from the ground up—literally. Through planting, tending, and working the soil, the author learns how to stay present, reclaim her body and voice, and find peace after years of fear.

The Dirt Artist is a story about choosing freedom, about the slow and sacred work of recovery, and about beginning again—rooted in the earth, shaped by truth, and grown with hard-won hope.