Overview

In 2019, writers from Los Angeles's Glass Table Collective, all over 60, gathered at AWP, Portland, to take up the idea of late-stage writing. What is it like to grow old as a writer, to face both the page and one's final years in the same breath? For even if we've reached the stage in life where we have many more years behind us than ahead, it still occurs to most of us as somehow surprising: we can die, we will die, we do die. Then the pandemic came. By turns searing, poignant, and downright funny, What Falls Away Is Always brings together more than thirty writers of both prose and poetry to reflect on the experiences of aging and writing they share, along with the possibly more daunting question-what next?

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9781733378956

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Reviews

Theodore Roethke, whose words give this anthology its title, once wrote There are times when reality comes closer, and in these meditations death comes close, oh so close, to the reader. The authors here entertain pressing questions: What ghosts should we keep around, and which let go? How do we talk to Death? Do we invite her and accept her into the commotion of life? Must we take inventory of our past accomplishments? How do we proceed with artistic endeavors in old age? Is there such a thing as late style ? Be consoled, and surprised, as you listen in to these courageous voices.--Molly Bendall Taking its cue from Theodore Roethke's sublime, indelible villanelle, The Waking, this is an eclectic and wise compendium of writers addressing the richness and challenges of embracing aging, leave-taking, and the majestic journey toward death. Some of these testimonial essays are so tell-true and bracing, it's exhilarating. Diane Seuss, one of America's best and liveliest contemporary poets, insists: Death is not an artificial boundary. It's as dumb and real as Trump's wall. It's as dumb and real as artificial flowers. These way-showing, articulate elders bear candid witness to the late-in-life craving for mundane joy and mere existence alongside rallying impulses to attempt their best, most daring work yet. An invigorating and inspiring book! --Cyrus Cassells

"Theodore Roethke, whose words give this anthology its title, once wrote ""There are times when reality comes closer,"" and in these meditations death comes close, oh so close, to the reader. The authors here entertain pressing questions: What ghosts should we keep around, and which let go? How do we talk to Death? Do we invite her and accept her into the commotion of life? Must we take inventory of our past accomplishments? How do we proceed with artistic endeavors in old age? Is there such a thing as ""late style""? Be consoled, and surprised, as you listen in to these courageous voices.--Molly Bendall Taking its cue from Theodore Roethke's sublime, indelible villanelle, ""The Waking,"" this is an eclectic and wise compendium of writers addressing the richness and challenges of embracing aging, leave-taking, and the majestic journey toward death. Some of these testimonial essays are so tell-true and bracing, it's exhilarating. Diane Seuss, one of America's best and liveliest contemporary poets, insists: ""Death is not an artificial boundary. It's as dumb and real as Trump's wall. It's as dumb and real as artificial flowers."" These way-showing, articulate elders bear candid witness to the late-in-life craving for mundane joy and ""mere existence"" alongside rallying impulses to attempt their best, most daring work yet. An invigorating and inspiring book!""--Cyrus Cassells"

Author Information

Katharine Haake's books include an eco-dystopian science fiction fable, The Time of Quarantine; a hybrid California prose lyric, That Water, Those Rocks; three collections of stories; and a chapbook of fabulist parables, Assumptions We Might Make About the Postworld. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in such journals as One Story, The Iowa Review, Crazyhorse, Witness, Alaska Quarterly Review, Fiction International, and Shenandoah, and received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and been listed as distinguished by Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays. One short story collection was a New York Times notable book; another was an LA Times bestseller. A collaborative text/image diptych she did with artist Lisa Bloomfield is included in Bloomfield's portfolio in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Haake is also a longtime contributor to the scholarship of creative writing theory and the author of the foundational text, What Our Speech Disrupts: Feminism and Creative Writing Studies. A recent fellow at the Djerassi/Leonardo Scientific Delirium Madness residency, Haake has also been awarded a Master Artist's Fellowship from the Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Los Angeles. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at California State University, Northridge. Gail Wronsky is the author, coauthor, or translator of fifteen books of poetry and prose, including the poetry collections Under the Capsized Boat We Fly, New & Selected Poems; Imperfect Pastorals; Poems for Infidels; and Dying for Beauty, a finalist for the Western Arts Federation Poetry Prize. She is the translator of Argentinean poet Alicia Partnoy's book Fuegos Florales/Flowering Fires, winner of the American Poetry Prize from Settlement House Press. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including Poetry, Boston Review, Antioch Review, Denver Quarterly, Poetry International, Guesthouse, and Volt. She is the recipient of an Artists Fellowship from the California Arts Council. Her work has appeared in anthologies, including Poets Against War; The Black Body; In Possession of Shakespeare; The Poet's Child; and Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles. The Moose in the Moon, her book of poetry for children, was recently published by Tsehai Publishers. She teaches creative writing and women's literature at Loyola Marymount University where she was awarded the Harry M. Daum Professorship. She lives in Topanga, California.

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