Diana stands before the mirror preening with her best friend, Maureen. Suddenly, a classmate enters holding a gun, and Diana sees her life dance before her eyes. In a moment the future she was just imagining--a doting wife and mother at the age of forty--is sealed by a horrific decision she is forced to make. In prose infused with the dramatically feminine sensuality of spring, we experience seventeen-year-old Diana's uncertain steps into womanhood--her awkward, heated forays into sex; her fresh, fragile construction of an identity. Together with the sights and sounds of renewal, we...
Diana stands before the mirror preening with her best friend, Maureen. Suddenly, a classmate enters holding a gun, and Diana sees her life dance befor...
On Valentine s Day, Sherry finds an anonymous note in her mailbox: be mine. As the notes continue, Sherry becomes more and more charged by the idea that she can inspire such feelings. Her twenty-year marriage is routine and she feels old, aimless, and empty now that her son is in college. When she discovers who her admirer is, she begins a wildly passionate affair with him. But her son s childhood friend is witness to the affair, her best friend is strangely silent, and her husband is playing a disturbing game of titillation and encouragement. Soon events spiral out of Sherry s control,...
On Valentine s Day, Sherry finds an anonymous note in her mailbox: be mine. As the notes continue, Sherry becomes more and more charged by the idea th...
The subject matter of these poems is ordinary: motherhood, marriage, sexuality, middle age, ambivalence, mortality, the Midwest. But in addressing these topics, Laura Kasischke finds and reveals the strangeness of the most common traditions and dilemmas. These are poems that work to fuse reality and dream, life and death, logic and illogic. Kasischke precisely renders the experience we have of ourselves as physical and time-bound beings existing in a psychological and spiritual realm that seems to have no barriers or laws. The poems in this collection are both narrative and lyric, grounded in...
The subject matter of these poems is ordinary: motherhood, marriage, sexuality, middle age, ambivalence, mortality, the Midwest. But in addressing the...
"Gardening in the Dark," Kasischke s sixth book of poetry, continues to explore the transformative power of imagination. Her poems take us to the flip side of human consciousness, where anything can happen at any time. Tinged with surrealism, her work makes visionary leaps from the quotidian to sudden, surprising epiphanies."
"Gardening in the Dark," Kasischke s sixth book of poetry, continues to explore the transformative power of imagination. Her poems take us to the f...
"She has, like all good poets, created a music of her own, one suited to her concerns. When denizens of the 22nd century, if we get there, look back on our era and ask how we lived, they will take an interest both in the strangest personalities who gave their concerns verbal form, and in the most representative. The future will not--should not--see us by one poet alone. But if there is any justice in that future, Kasischke is one of the poets it will choose." --Boston Review
"Kasichke's poems are powered by a skillful use of imagery and the subtle, ingenious way she turns a...
"She has, like all good poets, created a music of her own, one suited to her concerns. When denizens of the 22nd century, if we get there, look bac...
In a Perfect World is critically acclaimed writer Laura Kasischke's new novel of marriage, motherhood, and the choices we make when we have no choices left. Kasischke, the author of The Life Before Her Eyes, tells the story of Jiselle, a young flight attendant who's just settled into a fairy tale life with her new husband and stepchildren. But as a mysterious new illness spreads rapidly throughout the country, she begins to realize that her marriage, her stepchildren, and their perfect world are all in terrible danger . . .
In a Perfect World is critically acclaimed writer Laura Kasischke's new novel of marriage, motherhood, and the choices we make when we have n...
In 1903, a preacher named Benjamin Purnell and five followers founded a colony called the House of David in Benton Harbor, Michigan, where they prepared for eternal life by creating a heaven on earth. Housed in rambling mansions and surrounded by lush orchards and vineyards, the colony added a thousand followers to its fold within a few years, along with a zoo, extensive gardens, and an amusement park. The sprawling complex, called Eden Springs, was a major tourist attraction of the Midwest. The colonists, who were drawn from far and wide by the magnetic "King Ben," were told to keep their...
In 1903, a preacher named Benjamin Purnell and five followers founded a colony called the House of David in Benton Harbor, Michigan, where they pre...
"Kasischke's writing does what good poetry does--it shows us an alternate world and lulls us into living in it . . . The language catapults us into another plane of existence, one of facade and reflection." --New York Times Book Review
"Haunting, unsettling, and unforgettable, The Raising limns love, longing, belonging and the things we only think we know about life--and yes, death." --Caroline Leavitt, author of Pictures of You
From Laura Kasischke, the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of In a Perfect World and The Life Before Her...
"Kasischke's writing does what good poetry does--it shows us an alternate world and lulls us into living in it . . . The language catapults us into an...
"Kasischke's intelligence is most apparent in her syntactic control and pace, the way she gauges just when to make free verse speed up, or stop short, or slow down."--The New York Times Book Review
"Kasischke's poems are powered by a skillful use of imagery and the subtle, ingenious way she turns a phrase."--Austin American-Statesman
Laura Kasischke's poems have the same haunting qualities and truth as our most potent memories and dreams. Through ghostly voices, fragmented narratives, overheard conversations, songs, and prayers in language reminiscent of medieval...
"Kasischke's intelligence is most apparent in her syntactic control and pace, the way she gauges just when to make free verse speed up, or stop sho...
For "Ghost Writers: Us Haunting Them" editors Keith Taylor and Laura Kasischke asked twelve celebrated Michigan writers to submit new stories on one subject: ghosts. The resulting collection is a satisfying mix of tales by some of the state's most well-known and award-winning writers. Some of the pieces are true stories written by non-believers, while others are clearly fiction and can be funny, bittersweet, spooky, or sinister. All share Michigan as a setting, bringing history and a sense of place to the eerie collection.
Ghosts in these stories have a wide range of motivations and...
For "Ghost Writers: Us Haunting Them" editors Keith Taylor and Laura Kasischke asked twelve celebrated Michigan writers to submit new stories on on...
