Gentle and Fierce
At the beginning of 2019 I began work on a new book. I started it knowing I wanted to write a set of stories that were based around my relationships to animals, and how animals had figured in my life. As a writer I’m most interested in how memory exists within and outside of us, how other people and beings and objects and places act as memory triggers. I wondered what might arise if I turned this way of thinking towards the animals of my life.
Gentle and Fierce is the result: a collection of 20 illustrated essays that examine the presence of animals in my life and memory. It will be in bookstores this July, and you can read more about it for now at the publisher’s website.
As the publication date comes closer I will share a little more about the stories in the book and the process of writing them, but for now, here is a glimpse of some of the desks at which I worked on Gentle and Fierce.




Thank you for a glimpse into your writing process. I like the stack of books serving as a laptop stand! Looking forward to the book.
Thanks Joe – for years I have meant to get a proper laptop stand but books do as well (and I have plenty!)