Gathered Pieces

More about the book

The pieces in this collection were selected from the author’s work during the 1970s through the 1990s. They are arranged by location, reflecting her moves from Southern California, to Missouri, minus some years in Micronesia during the 80s, to San Francisco, to Louisiana, and a jaunt into Mexico. A few of the earliest earliest pieces began life as classroom assignments, and what she produced was enough to satisfy her that she could do what she always wanted to do: write. Each piece, whether prose or poem, was built on the manipulation of memories, the re-imagining of tales she'd been told, of close observation of her own life and the lives of others. Whether in the construction of a poem or to advance a story’s narrative, the author allowed her characters to borrow the very beds she’s slept in, to steal food off her tables and words out of mouths.