A Year In Place - Softcover

Olsen, W Scott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0874806739 ISBN 13: 9780874806731

Publisher: University of Utah Press, 2001

Synopsis

W. Scott Olsen and Bret Lott invited a dozen friends to consider one particular calendar month in the place they call home. The result is A Year in Place, a captivating collection of new writing by twelve eminent American writers.

More than a montage of voices and experiences, A Year in Place illustrates, as Olsen and Lott explain in their introduction, the trends in American thinking about who we are and what we care about. Rick Bass takes us to the Yaak Valley of Montana in June, where fawns are arriving, "newly-emerged, knocked-legged and groggy, legs still unfolding from that long sleeping passage." Peggy Shumaker explores the special social and cultural time that is March in Fairbanks, Alaska, where a long winter has whetted the psychic despair of inhabitants who find in the "sky’s unbearable brightness . . . a waking pain beyond endurance." Michael Martone transports us through memory to Indiana in the 1950s where each May a blimp "yawed and floated up," wallowing above a suburban neighborhood on its way to the Indianapolis 500.

These and nine other contributions yield an unforgettable book about "the places we find ourselves blessed enough to be."

About this title

Reviews

These 12 seasonal essays and poems are by American writers who were invited by editors Olsen (English, Concordia Coll.) and Lott (Jewel) to describe the place they call home during a particular month. This premise allows the reader to travel from California in February to Indiana in May to South Carolina in November. The events, nature, and moods of these locales inspire several authors to remember relationships with their parents. John Lane's essay, "The Inheritance of Autumn," recalls his father's suicide; Michael Martone's "Racing in Place 33 Hoosier Haiku" evokes his family and the importance of the Indianapolis 500; and, in "Walking and Falling," Douglas Carlson writes about family vacations to Cape Cod. Other pieces focus on events and places. Peggy Shumaker describes the rebirth of Fairbanks in March, while Rick Bass details the beginning of summer during June on an island in northern Montana. Although the monthly theme pulls the work together, the vastly different writing styles create a disjointed collection. Ideal for students and writing classes; recommended for academic and larger public libraries. Joyce Sparrow, Juvenile Welfare Board Lib., Pinellas Park, FL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Utah Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0874806739
• ISBN 13: 9780874806731
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 238