LISA RUSS SPARR's most recent books are Madrigalia: New & Selected Poems and Paradise Close: A Novel. Her collection Soul Cake: Poems will be published next year. She is a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia, where for many years she directed the Creative Writing Program.
Before she died nearly three decades ago at age 93, my widowed paternal grandmother put her modest farmhouse in order, emptying the attic of what I saw as precious artifacts: children's books and toys belonging to my father and his sister, vintage dresses from John Wanamaker, her 1928 wedding gown, a hooped petticoat belonging to a great-great aunt. She unsentimentally emptied drawers of greeting cards and photographs, gradually consumed the mason jars of tomatoes, peaches, and other bounty she'd…
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The American Scholar (Digital) - 1 Issue, Spring 2025