The Persistence of Memory and Other Stories

A dozen stories featuring characters aged 4 to 94, each dealing in some way with how and why our memories shape our current crises. Included in the collection: in the days just after World War II, a young girl tries to remember the man being introduced to her as her father; an academic denied tenure remembers how to land on her feet; a couple on their way to divorce think about the things that once drew them together and then drove them apart; an elderly man struggles to recall where the bathroom is and why his wife has been replaced by a stranger; a newly widowed grandmother remembers the joy of finger painting and answering to no one; and the title story, in which a great-grandmother proves that you never forget how to make a bicycle go even if you may need a crash course in how to stop one.

Jan Maher's novel Earth As It Is was named a Best Indie of 2017 by Kirkus Reviews and was American Fiction Awards 2018 LGBT Award Winner. Her novel Heaven, Indiana garnered Best Indie of 2018 designation from Kirkus Reviews. Her play Most Dangerous Women has been produced in dozens of venues in fourteen states since its debut performance in Seattle in 1990. Her books for educators and community activists include Most Dangerous Women: Bringing History to Life through Readers' Theater and History in the Present Tense (co-authored with Doug Selwyn). She lives in Greenfield, MA with her husband Doug Selwyn where she is a co-coordinator of The LAVA Center, an arts incubator, black-box theater, and community gathering space in downtown Greenfield. A retired educator, Maher holds a PhD from The Union Institute and University in Interdisciplinary Studies and is a senior scholar at the Institute for Ethics in Public Life, State University of New York at Plattsburgh.