Follow Margaret's essays at Letter from Home!
POCKETS: A HISTORY
December 30, 2021 There sometimes arises a subject matter so unextraordinary, so taken for granted, that by its own pedestrian nature it becomes something of a rockstar. I hope you’ll agree with me that this is certainly the case with pockets. Pockets. Those rectangular appendages we’ve come to count on, those utilitarian bits of fabric we entrust our lives to, lives that include wallets, phones or a tin of chewing tobacco...read more |
FINDING OUR WAY IN THE DARK; SEXTANTS, TELESCOPES, AND A MOTHER'S ADVICE
November 18, 2021 Among my mother's possessions when she died was a wooden box, a box exactly the size of the one in which we buried he ashes. It had a sticky latch, a latch that seemed to tell us no, not yet, there are other tasks to take care of. So for weeks the box sat where it had always sat, under a table - a handsome mahogany table - besides a bookcase...read more |
MOVING DEMOCRACY FORWARD
October 7, 2021 The history of people gathering to protest, or marching to make their minds known, is a long one. Often peaceful by intent, and just as often the last stop before violence, every protest march is one side of a conversation, a monologue inviting dialogue. Or an act of extreme frustration, Not-Power speaking to Power and not being heard. Before this young country came to be...read more |
Welcome!
The trains go by my house 62 times a day. Some say no, 120 times a day. Now, that's a big difference. Why do some of us see double what others see, hear twice as many trains as everyone else? Has anyone actually counted? If I'm out walking by the tracks, I count the engines and wave at the engineers, and sometimes they toot their horns and wave back at me. But it's curious, don't you think, that we all see and hear different numbers of trains? I'm curious to know what you're curious about, what your mind and brain are thinking. I'd like to make this space a place of conversation. I do it by decree at this very moment: From here on out we think and ask and answer out loud to each other. Let's begin!
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Margaret Erhart earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the author of five novels and many essays and articles. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Best American Spiritual Writing 2005, and most recently in Northern Arizona’s Mountain Living Magazine and Flagstaff Live!. Her commentaries have aired on NPR. Her fourth novel, Crossing Bully Creek, won the Milkweed National Fiction Prize. Her fifth, The Butterflies of Grand Canyon, was a finalist for an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. She has taught poetry to first-graders in Tuba City, and fiction to college students. She lives and works in Flagstaff, Arizona.
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