Debbie Sosin’s new book could never be summarized in just 70 words — not when both the Rye native’s roots and her life story run so deep.
Now a Boston-based writer and clinical social worker, Sosin wrote and self-published “Escape Velocity” in honor of her 70th birthday. The book — recently named a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards —
features 70 micro-memoirs, each exactly 70 words long, accompanied by illustrations by Anna Hall.
Sosin says she didn’t cheat to make the word counts work, though the subtitle does get a little help from hyphens: “How One 70-Year-Old Push-Pulled Her Way Out of Her Too-Much-Not-Enough Family.”
Sosin is scheduled to discuss the book — along with the craft of micro-writing, her Rye connection, and the deeply personal memories woven through its pages — at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 7, at the Rye Free Reading Room, in conversation with Rye writer and Rye Record contributor Alison Relyea.
The title reveals much about the emotions and experiences explored in the book, which centers on family connection and estrangement.
“I pushed away and then got pulled back in, always trying to maintain the connection,” Sosin said, explaining the significance of the “Escape Velocity” metaphor. “It’s a physics term — a rocket must travel at the right speed to escape the gravitational pull of Earth. That title worked perfectly because I needed to find the energy to leave my family and find my own way in life. But I also didn’t want to lose them.”
Sosin said the idea for “Escape Velocity” began as a personal challenge as she approached her seventh decade. Inspired by an earlier project involving a 50-word reflection for a friend, she discovered she loved the challenge of compressing an entire story into a tiny space.
“It turns out that you have a lot of freedom within the micro-memoir style. You have to find a metaphor, an image, a verb that’s going to do a lot of work. It’s part creative nonfiction, part prose poetry,” she said.
The collection spans early family memories at Rye Beach, adolescent diary excerpts, a high school sexual assault, an abortion at 21, deeply personal therapy reflections, midlife dating experiences, and a onesie originally bought for a friend but saved for two decades as a symbol of last hope before finally being gifted away. It also explores aging, grief alongside a parent’s deathbed, humor, heartbreak, and resilience.
Many of the book’s early scenes are rooted in Sosin’s childhood at 52 Hill Street, where she lived with her parents, Gloria and Gene, and her brother, Donald, and attended Milton School. She joked that while in town, she may drive by the old house and knock on the door. Her mother also grew up in Rye, at 272 Purchase Street. Her grandparents, Isaac and Edith Donen, later lived on Forest Ave, and her parents were married in that home.
Sosin said her grandparents immigrated from Russia in 1913 and then settled in Rye. Her grandfather owned Donovan’s Music Store at 78 Purchase St. (now William Raveis Real Estate), while her uncle Sam operated a stationery store across the street, where the store Sarza now stands.
Her grandparents also helped found Rye’s Community Synagogue in 1950. “But that’s a whole other story,” she said, noting the synagogue’s cultural importance in the town.
In 1966, after sixth grade, Sosin’s family moved to Munich, Germany for four years, where her father worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
When they later returned to Westchester, the family settled in White Plains, where Sosin graduated from White Plains High School.
Sosin’s mother, Gloria Donen Sosin, a writer herself, served in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II. Sosin and Relyea met when Relyea — who is active in preserving Rye history — interviewed Donen Sosin about her military service a few years before she died. Donen Sosin was later featured by the Rye City Council as one of several honored women veterans.
Though Sosin has not returned to Westchester since her mother’s death in 2021 at age 99, Sosin said she previously traveled frequently from Boston to visit her. During those trips, the pair often took what she called “the heritage tour,” driving past old family homes and visiting Milton Point to look out at the water.
“Rye is in my blood, in my heart,” Sosin said. “This is the library I grew up in.” She fondly recalled longtime children’s librarian Miss Doris Bird, whom she described as “a lovely, lovely woman” and “a mainstay of the Rye community.”
Returning to the Rye Free Reading Room will feel emotional, she admitted. “We used to go there for chamber music concerts often. Of course, then I was bored because my parents dragged me,” she laughed. “But now I appreciate all the cultural offerings Rye had and still has.”
After the discussion, Sosin will sign and sell copies of “Escape Velocity.”
