Helen Wickes

Moon over Zabriskie Helen Wickes

"As a title, Moon Over Zabriskie immediately invokes the theme of place, of landscape. And perhaps also a kind of mirroring, because Zabriskie is itself a kind of moonscape. This deeply sensitive, beautifully written book locates us in the grandeur of the American landscape, which functions as a kind of mirror, because this is not a book about the outside, but about the inside. Landscape is not a sole subject, or a limitation; we have Caravaggio and Chekhov, and the book's relentless focus is the self: the writer's self, the reader's self. What we have is life: family and flowers, rivers and deserts, paintings and songs. Everyone wants solace for their marrow-deep grief, and here we'll find it." Edward Smallfield, author of Equinox and co-founder of Apogee Press.