Working on Me

Nikki Patin
Publication date: April, 2024
Genre: Memoir
Paperback: ISBN: 978-3-98832-053-7​
eBook: ISBN: 978-3-98832-054-4
★★★★★ “World-splitting. Fast, crucial, intimate, high, deep, it has the undeniable shine of a brilliant being finding her way in a world that cannot handle her shine.” cin salach, author of When I Am Yes

Working on Me chronicles the dysfunction and lore of a Black Russian Jewish interracial family on the far south side of Chicago, and the resulting trajectory of its prodigal child: multifaceted, multidisciplinary artist, performer, and sexual and domestic violence survivor Nikki Patin.  

A meditation on the biomythography genre defined by Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Joy Harjo, Working on Me lyrically dances in and out of different voices and perspectives in order to get to something like the truth. Patin’s prowess as a poet and a songwriter is reflected in prose that is brutal, beautiful, and brave. 

Working on Me is about what it means to work on oneself to heal and break patterns of harm and violence and what makes the healing necessary in the first place: all the forces beyond our control that work on us.
Vine Leaves Press © 2011 - 2025
We are a nomad publisher. Our feet are spread all over the globe.
Our main office is located in Athens, Greece. Our secondary offices are in Germany and Australia. Since these are also private residences, we have chosen not to list them publicly.