box turtle road

Dear precious books, one of my families:

Thank you for saving my life when I was a teenager, especially Ursula Leguin and Andre Norton, for offering me sweet refuge and constant inspiration, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, for helping me begin a rich continual virtual life. Octavia Butler.

I fall in love with you every day/Bastard Out of Carolina-just to walk by my library fills me with comfort and joy/Violeta Parra

All my life you have been companion and goad/Eudora Welty/ my home and inspiration. Toni Morrison/Eduardo Galeano/Joy Harjo

Like my ancestors you are constant and available/Wilma Dykeman.

We talk at 3 AM in the morning, Ann Leckie, or on the plane or riding to a show or especially in the liminal moments, between doctor’s appointments, before the food comes, as a respite in stress, as a way to love someone by sharing their desires or origins or who they will become. Accidental Tourists of the Carolinas/Ellen Foster/Emergent Strategy

I am not fickle in this, ready always to discover a new love. Helen Oyeyemi/Michele Berger

I cannot unlove, from Camus in my teens to Doris Lessing to Louise Erdrich to Nnedi Okorofor.

I follow the line and the time. Nalo Hopkinson/Adrienne Maree Brown/Alyson Hagy-now I’m on the trail of Nisi Shawl.

Why so many women? I think I know.

We are generous with each other-engagement upon demand. As you haul me out of bed hours before dawn-The Overstory-or I steal you away from a hotel lobby in Puerto Rico-These Are Not Sweet Girls