


Free Online Book Talk · Shapeshifter: The Art of Family Tragedy and How to Be Amazing Anyway Book Talk, with Visual Artist, Author, Death Doula, Amy Putney Koenig
Monday, August 11, 2025
7pm ET (NYC time)
Free! RSVP with email at checkout
PLEASE NOTE: Video playback of free events is only available to Patreon members. Become a Member HERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanatomy.org.
Shapeshifter: The Art of Family Tragedy and How to Be Amazing Anyway is an interactive memoir that explores inherited grief, recovery, art, and death. The book highlights how inherited grief stemming from the traumatic childhood death of the author's aunt Susan cast a shadow over generations. Putney Koenig tells her story in flash essays interspersed with haunting and inspiring images. She explores the impact of Susan's devastating accident on her own childhood and how its echoes influenced her approach as an artist and death care worker. Anchored in the art of remembering, the slim volume offers an unflinching view of one woman's addiction, rebellion, recovery and forgiveness. Each chapter ends with prompts designed to help readers cope with loss by harnessing their own creativity. In this illustrated talk, join the artist as she collects her mother's bones after cremation and opens Susan's coffin 50 years after her death.
Amy Putney Koenig is a visual artist, author, death doula, and slow yoga guide. Her work utilizes art as a tool, much like alchemy, to transform, enhance, and connect through universal themes of duality: life and death, shadow and light, doubt and courage. Painting, collage and illustration are her primary mediums. Putney Koenig has participated in several juried exhibits and created memorable interactive solo exhibits, including "Shapeshifter: The Art of Family Tragedy and How to Be Amazing Anyway" (2012) and "A Viewing-Art on Death and Reconciliation" (2019). In 2022, she curated a large group exhibit, "From The Altar-Art on the Beauty in Death and the Magic of Life." A book on that exhibit is in production. In 2020, Putney Koenig collaborated with writer Kara Simons as the illustrator of Prairie Majesty Oracle. She has been a donation-based death doula and hospice volunteer since 2019. Recently, Putney Koenig self-published a book about inherited grief, death, art, recovery and love which she will discuss in this lecture. Morbid Anatomy and Joanna Ebenstein have long been a source of inspiration, learning, and kinship in their shared fascination with death and refusal to look away. Putney Koenig lives in Des Moines, IA.
Monday, August 11, 2025
7pm ET (NYC time)
Free! RSVP with email at checkout
PLEASE NOTE: Video playback of free events is only available to Patreon members. Become a Member HERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanatomy.org.
Shapeshifter: The Art of Family Tragedy and How to Be Amazing Anyway is an interactive memoir that explores inherited grief, recovery, art, and death. The book highlights how inherited grief stemming from the traumatic childhood death of the author's aunt Susan cast a shadow over generations. Putney Koenig tells her story in flash essays interspersed with haunting and inspiring images. She explores the impact of Susan's devastating accident on her own childhood and how its echoes influenced her approach as an artist and death care worker. Anchored in the art of remembering, the slim volume offers an unflinching view of one woman's addiction, rebellion, recovery and forgiveness. Each chapter ends with prompts designed to help readers cope with loss by harnessing their own creativity. In this illustrated talk, join the artist as she collects her mother's bones after cremation and opens Susan's coffin 50 years after her death.
Amy Putney Koenig is a visual artist, author, death doula, and slow yoga guide. Her work utilizes art as a tool, much like alchemy, to transform, enhance, and connect through universal themes of duality: life and death, shadow and light, doubt and courage. Painting, collage and illustration are her primary mediums. Putney Koenig has participated in several juried exhibits and created memorable interactive solo exhibits, including "Shapeshifter: The Art of Family Tragedy and How to Be Amazing Anyway" (2012) and "A Viewing-Art on Death and Reconciliation" (2019). In 2022, she curated a large group exhibit, "From The Altar-Art on the Beauty in Death and the Magic of Life." A book on that exhibit is in production. In 2020, Putney Koenig collaborated with writer Kara Simons as the illustrator of Prairie Majesty Oracle. She has been a donation-based death doula and hospice volunteer since 2019. Recently, Putney Koenig self-published a book about inherited grief, death, art, recovery and love which she will discuss in this lecture. Morbid Anatomy and Joanna Ebenstein have long been a source of inspiration, learning, and kinship in their shared fascination with death and refusal to look away. Putney Koenig lives in Des Moines, IA.
Monday, August 11, 2025
7pm ET (NYC time)
Free! RSVP with email at checkout
PLEASE NOTE: Video playback of free events is only available to Patreon members. Become a Member HERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanatomy.org.
Shapeshifter: The Art of Family Tragedy and How to Be Amazing Anyway is an interactive memoir that explores inherited grief, recovery, art, and death. The book highlights how inherited grief stemming from the traumatic childhood death of the author's aunt Susan cast a shadow over generations. Putney Koenig tells her story in flash essays interspersed with haunting and inspiring images. She explores the impact of Susan's devastating accident on her own childhood and how its echoes influenced her approach as an artist and death care worker. Anchored in the art of remembering, the slim volume offers an unflinching view of one woman's addiction, rebellion, recovery and forgiveness. Each chapter ends with prompts designed to help readers cope with loss by harnessing their own creativity. In this illustrated talk, join the artist as she collects her mother's bones after cremation and opens Susan's coffin 50 years after her death.
Amy Putney Koenig is a visual artist, author, death doula, and slow yoga guide. Her work utilizes art as a tool, much like alchemy, to transform, enhance, and connect through universal themes of duality: life and death, shadow and light, doubt and courage. Painting, collage and illustration are her primary mediums. Putney Koenig has participated in several juried exhibits and created memorable interactive solo exhibits, including "Shapeshifter: The Art of Family Tragedy and How to Be Amazing Anyway" (2012) and "A Viewing-Art on Death and Reconciliation" (2019). In 2022, she curated a large group exhibit, "From The Altar-Art on the Beauty in Death and the Magic of Life." A book on that exhibit is in production. In 2020, Putney Koenig collaborated with writer Kara Simons as the illustrator of Prairie Majesty Oracle. She has been a donation-based death doula and hospice volunteer since 2019. Recently, Putney Koenig self-published a book about inherited grief, death, art, recovery and love which she will discuss in this lecture. Morbid Anatomy and Joanna Ebenstein have long been a source of inspiration, learning, and kinship in their shared fascination with death and refusal to look away. Putney Koenig lives in Des Moines, IA.