BOOK LAUNCH FOR LETTERS TO BOULDERS

SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2:00-3:30 PM

FREE TO ATTEND; NO RESERVATION REQUIRED

The scientist is the close cousin of the poet, and Karen Donovan is both. In her witty and engaging new book, Letters to Boulders, 45 prose pieces inspired by rocks she collected in her native Rhode Island are paired with stunning photographs by Goshen book designer Michael Grinley. Geographic forces— erratics, tarns, glaciers, and xenoliths—mirror social forces as the texts ponder how we are constructed, what adheres, moves around, holds up or crumbles. The book concludes with a field guide to the rocks—a brilliant new take on the glossary, in which definition itself becomes a kind of poem. Occupying a new niche in nature writing, Letters to Boulders is both a poetic meditation on the mutable qualities of the earth we tread upon and a visual study of their beauty.

“At once a field guide, commonplace book, mash note to the planet, and lyrical autobiography, Karen Donovan’s Letters to Boulders finds the entire world—and the moon, too—in the handfuls of rocks that fill her pockets and line her windowsills.”

Join us to hear Karen read her stone prose and to view a showcase of Mike's stone portraits. The artists will also talk about the making of the book and describe the process they developed for collaborating with rocks!