Writing / Collection 02
Literary nonfiction following maps, memory, inherited knowledge, and the questions that ordinary encounters leave open.
Selected manuscript excerpts. The complete essays remain part of the ongoing writing practice.
Literary nonfiction
An instruction to turn left at a cow opens a question about how a person knows a place—and how someone else can borrow that knowledge.
Excerpt / Paige C. T. Croucher
Maps, while useful, appear to account for only a small portion of how people actually arrive anywhere.
My grandfather once told me to turn left at the cow. I did. The journey concluded successfully. It was years before I realized the map had never mentioned the cow.
Observational essay
An unfinished afternoon becomes a small expedition through maps, gravel, sediment, and the surprising distance a gold pan can travel without leaving home.
Excerpt / Paige C. T. Croucher
I opened a map of Alberta while the apartment was halfway through several other things. The laundry had started, which meant progress was technically happening somewhere, and a few dishes had made it close enough to the sink that their intentions seemed clear. The map was only supposed to answer one question, although this is usually how maps become a problem.