When Shoshana Mitrani Knapp was a child, her father and 11-year-old brother perished in a plane crash. This trauma shaped Shoshana’s life, sending her on a decades-long search for meaning and purpose. Mid-life, she changed the course of her career, turning from marketing to the rabbinate. An endless seeker, Shoshana explored a host of spiritual practices and resources.

This book, Stay in the Light, tells the story of her journey. Written over the course of seven years, this spiritual memoir shares stories of everyday encounters that are profound and remarkable – not for their magnitude, but for their quiet subtlety that Shoshana discerns with her highly attuned sensibilities. Her vulnerabilities and challenges, joys and strengths are exposed as are the myriad number of tools and resources she has used to deal with everyday life. Her hope is that these tools, especially her chanting, can help others cope with their own challenges.

As a designer, my job was to capture Shoshana’s spirit, messages and intent on every page of this close to 200 page book. In addition to the cover, font choices, margin widths, design elements, chapter heads, quotations, even page numbers were all carefully crafted to convey Shoshana’s integrity and heart with authenticity. I am grateful to Shoshana for entrusting me with this project and to all of the members of our team, including Gari Julius Weilbacher and Amy Graham. Find out more about the book and listen to Rav Shoshana’s chants.

View sample pages and purchase Stay in the Light.

See other books that I have designed: Cooking From Memory, Directing the Heart, Our Health Journal.