"The body knows a language the mind never wholly masters."In this remarkable debut collection-essentially a memoir in essay form-Brenda Miller creates an autobiography that locates her body as its central reference point. Single and unable to bear children of her own, Miller details a life in relationship to the extended human family, a journey that traverses realms physical, emotional, and spiritual.

"Miller shows us that a love of language is not merely the province of the poet, but that in the hands of a skillful and original prose writer, the essay becomes, in its own fashion, an ode, an elegy, a sonnet, a sestina."-Robin Hemley

"These sensuous, memorable essays are an inquiry into what it is to be a body in a world of bodies, an alert, receptive, physical woman moving through interlocking realms of culture, geography, and spirit."-Mark Doty

Marketing Plans:

Author tour in the areas in and around Seattle, Portland, Denver, San Francisco, Missoula, and Salt Lake City

Newsletter, brochure, catalog, and postcard mailings

Advertisements in key literary and trade magazines

Reader copies available to booksellers through participation in Book Sense Advance Access Program

Brenda Miller has received two Pushcart Prizes for her work in creative nonfiction, and her essays have been published in periodicals such as The Sun, Utne Reader, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, and Seneca Review. Her work has been anthologized in The Beacon Best of 1999: Creative Writing by Women and Men of All Colors; Storming Heaven's Gate: An Anthology of Spiritual Writings by Women; and In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal. She is Editor-in-Chief of The Bellingham Review and an Assistant Professor of English at Western Washington University. She lives in Bellingham, WA.

"Elegant yet powerful works. . . ." Donna Seaman, Booklist

"Exquisite, delicate, wry noticing. . .." The Missoulian

"Brenda Miller is a poetic, near flawless, classical prose writer." Ara Taylor, The Bellingham Herald

"The resulting essays are memorable for their sensuality and unflinching honesty." Library Journal

"These sensuous, memorable essays are an inquiry into what it is to be a body in a world of bodies, an alert, receptive, physical woman moving through interlocking realms of culture, geography, and spirit. [It's not just the animal body I want,' Brenda Miller writes, [the mathematics of sex, the coupling: I want another heart, an extra one, a contrabassoon to echo my everyday pulse.' And these essays are, in a way, just that: the inner life captured in language, a pulse captured on the page," says Mark Doty.

In this remarkable debut collection — essentially a memoir in essay form — Brenda Miller creates an autobiography that locates her body as its central reference point. Single and unable to bear children of her own, Miller details a life in relationship to the extended human family, a journey that traverses realms physical, emotional, and spiritual.

Brenda Miller, author of Season of the Body (Sarabande Books, 2002), is an Assistant Professor of English at Western Washington University. She has received two Pushcart Prizes for her work in creative nonfiction, and her essays have been published in periodicals such as The Sun, Utne Reader, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, and Seneca Review. Her work has been anthologized in The Beacon Best of 1999: Creative Writing by Women and Men of All Colors; Storming Heaven's Gate: An Anthology of Spiritual Writings by Women; and In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal. She is Editor-in-Chief of The Bellingham Review.

Acknowledgements/ Prologue/ Body Language/ Part 1:Needlepoint, The Names, A Dharma Name, Basha Leah, Next Year in Jerusalem,/ Part II: How to Meditate, A Thousand Buddhas, Sean Falling, Split, Artifacts, Infant Ward,/ Part III: A Brief History of Sex, Prologue to A Sad Spring, The Date, Grape Hyacinths, Time With Children, A Field Guide to the Desert, Gourd, Kimono, Season of the Body,/ Part III: The Backward, Language of Prayer,/ The Author