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All the Leavings

by Laurie Easter

Oregon State University Press, 2021
eISBN: 978-0-87071-140-4 | Paper: 978-0-87071-122-0
Library of Congress Classification F882.J8E37 2021
Dewey Decimal Classification 979.525092

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC

ABOUT THIS BOOK
In All the Leavings, Laurie Easter deftly navigates both the rugged terrain of the human heart and life on the edge of wilderness. Her contemplative, often experimental essays explore love and risk: giving birth in a rustic cabin; the destructive power of wildfires; losing friends to cancer, AIDS, suicide, and meth; encounters with birds and mountain lions; and the unthinkable potential loss of a child to illness. Drawing from a reverence for the natural world—perilous yet rich with beauty—that is deeply rooted in a wild Oregon, All the Leavings examines what it means to love, lose, and find strength in facing adversity.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
LAURIE EASTER lives off the grid in southern Oregon. Her essays have been awarded fellowships by the Vermont Studio Center and Playa, listed as notable in Best American Essays, and published in many literary journals and anthologies. She holds degrees from Southern Oregon University and Vermont College of Fine Arts. All the Leavings is her first book.
laurieeaster.com

REVIEWS

“Dazzled by her prose, and startled by what living “off the grid” involves—(the bathtub is where?)—I was blown away from the git-go with a respect for Ms. Easter’s courage and endurance. She has loved, and she has suffered loss, as have we all, and she writes of both. But the strength and beauty of her language, combined with a rare generosity of spirit—the willingness to be vulnerable—transform these pieces into something more than essays, that makes of each a kind of offering. I absolutely loved this book.”
— Abigail Thomas, author of What Comes Next and How to Like It

“What is the color of leaving? Laurie Easter asks in this tender collection of essays that explores love, loss, and grief in all their many hues. She shows us there is no one answer to that central question, but instead builds a kaleidoscope that reflects the brilliant and broken-hearted nature of life itself.” —Brenda Miller, author of A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form

"Laurie Easter’s essays illuminate the splendors and perils of a life shaped by wilderness, open-heartedness and the bold decision to live on one’s own terms. All the Leavings dives headlong into stories of loss and an unusual life and does so with poise, humility and grace. An astonishing and exquisite debut." —Sonja Livingston, author of Ghostbread

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Author’s Note

Prologue

Her Body, a Wilderness

Relics

Something to Do with Baldness

Reprieve: Winter

I Have to Tell You

Sojourns with Big Cats in Triptych

Crack My Heart Wide Open

Reprieve: Spring

Searching for Gwen

Bad Blood

Rebound Tenderness

Reprieve: Summer

The Polarity of Incongruities

Three Weeks: A Chronology from Before to After

Solving My Way to Grandma

Reprieve: Autumn

All the Leavings

Antidote to Grief

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Notes and Sources

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