“A compelling portrait of the Treska family and its fascinating mythology. Hard-scrabble and beautiful, this is a poignant exploration of a working-class community, and the remnants of home as a vessel for memory. Through the complex rivers of love and history and family, Nicole Treska serves as a skillful guide of how to treasure a difficult past we might not always understand. Lyrical, keen, and full of tenderness, I’ll never look at Boston or its people the same way again.”
“Treska ponders the lifelong imprints of class and community in this touching memoir.”
“This winning debut memoir… amounts to an arresting and compassionate self-portrait.”
“A poignantly affecting memoir about surviving and thriving.”
Nicole Treska is a writer and professor living in New York City. She is the author of the debut memoir Wonderland: A Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even (Simon & Schuster, 2024). The Wall Street Journal called Wonderland "gatsbyesque," and Treska "washed up on the shores of respectability…if Ms. Treska preaches half as well as she practices, her students are lucky. She has a talent for a sweet turn of phrase.”
Her work has recently appeared in The End, Forever Magazine, and Archway Editions. Her short fiction has appeared in New York Tyrant magazine, Epiphany literary journal, and Egress: New Openings in Literary Art. Her interviews and reviews are up at Electric Literature, Guernica, The Millions, BOMB, The Rumpus, and others.
In an interview with BOMB Magazine, she was asked, “Is it better to have book smarts or street smarts?” “What I want for us all at this point in my life is not to have to get by on traumatic hustling,” she responded. “I mean, I respect that way of life a lot. I respect my mom for teaching us that nobody’s going to do it for you. You have to go out there and make it for yourself. That’s absolutely why I was able to move to New York and get to what I’ve gotten. We don’t come from wealth and I don’t come from a family that is super invested in higher education, so I feel like I was taught things via both harsh lessons and rewarding lessons. I just wish there were gentler ways to learn. That’s why the book’s subtitle is “Hustling Hard and Breaking Even.” It’s like, you get here, and you’re tired.”
Treska is currently at work on a novel and short story collection. She lives in Harlem with her husband, James, and their three-legged dog, Nadine.
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