Pattern of the Land: The Search for Home in an Altered Landscape

Eileen Apperson has always felt a visceral reaction to landscapes. The one she lives in has been compromised and altered, making her relationship to this place all the more complicated. The San Joaquin Valley has gone through series of transitions to become the worlds greatest agricultural region. To reach such status, the land has gone through sweeping alterations over the past 150 years. This has been due to a series of events brought about by missionaries, trappers, cattlemen famers, and finally a growing urban population. Pattern of the Land explores each of these stages in the valley's history by describing the uniqueness of its terrain. What brings this recorder upon the land closer is that the most significant of these changes have come at the hands of her family, the first settlers in a frontier. Pattern of the Land weaves family stories with historic accounts, focusing primarily on the region where the Kings River descends the Sierra to the area that was Tulare Lake. These sketches guide her search fit home in an altered landscape. Family has been one constant in the place she has grown to appreciate and is now proud to call home.

Eileen Apperson received a MA in nonfiction prose and a MFA in poetry from Califormia State University, Fresno. She has published essays and poetry on subjects from motherhood and family history to nature and composition theory. She teaches composition, literature, and creative writing at Reedley College.