Appearances is a collection of remarkable short stories by a master storyteller who is also a well-known poet. Jan Seale's capable evocation of peculiar personalities mixes with her sense of nostalgia and richly drawn places to create an ambiance of the extraordinary in the most commonplace of circumstances. Her characters are a delightful collection of people bewildered by life and haunted by memory who also find themselves relying on the confidence of experience and the solidity of conviction to press on, no matter what.
This is a delightful collection of insightful vignettes that reminds us how human and vulnerable we all are, how wrong we often can be, and how, in the long run, it's the integrity of our intentions that makes all the difference.
Order from any bookstore, local or online. This title is also available from of Galveston, Texas.
Jan Seale was the 2012 Texas Poet Laureate. She is the author of nine volumes of poetry, the latest being The Parkinson Poems, published by 番茄社区 University Press. She has also authored two books of short fiction, three volumes of non-fiction, and nine children's books.
Her work is published nationally in such venues as The Yale Review, Texas Monthly, and Newsday. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing. Seale teaches nationally for writing groups and learning centers, and conducts memoir and creative writing workshops in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas where she lives.