“The loss of a child is one of the most searing forms of suffering. Often there seems to be no way back. These poetic letters between Holly and Michael, written back and forth over a year, give us an intimate glimpse into their gentle, halting, purposeful steps toward healing. Through their keen and subtle observations, through the remembered words of their precocious and generous son, and through their brave willingness to endure the sorrow and forge an era of renewed and deepened commitment in their long love affair, they weave a cloth of human particulars into a universally moving account. ”
— Bob Massie, author of A Song in the Night: A Memoir of Resilience

Two writers, an artist and a psychologist who worked with dying children, lost their first-born son to an incurable sarcoma. Asher was 25 years old when he died. Three decades before, his parents, Holly Morse and Michael Lipson, had fallen in love writing letters, and they found themselves returning to letters to find their way through impossible grief. Here, these letters are shared publicly, for you to travel with them toward healing, perhaps allowing your own grief to come into resonance, as Morse and Lipson learn to stay in touch with the son they lost.

SPANGLED RUIN

Holly Morse, Tall Island Press, 2017

 
 
 
 
 
“With inventive language and dry-as-bone wit, Morse presents a flotilla of unforgettable characters in unexpected situations (an inebriated bookseller on the rebound, a real estate visit that ends in the ER...) in a wildly original collection that celebrates—and augurs—the violent possibility of our American lives.”
— Courtney Maum, author of Alan Opts Out & I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You.
“I absolutely love these stories, insightful, gentle, and also searing. It takes courage to write about the most tender aspects of human life, and talent to do so well, and luckily for us Holly Morse has both courage and talent to burn. Read Spangled Ruin and it will stay with you and you will be grateful that it does.”
— Robin Black, author of If I Loved You I Would Tell You This and Life Drawing

A small-town postal worker knows more than the young woman at her counter, including what they share; a Chinese American boy draws on fantasy to outmaneuver a menace; and an outsider artist teaches an urban lover the benefits of a fish’s perspective. In these stories – sexy, funny, tragic, cosmic – Holly Morse unfurls her talents. The stories deliver fresh data on the interplay between interiority and human relatedness. Many of them pass Peter Taylor’s test for the perfect short story: that it include all the elements of a novel in miniature. In the end, they achieve what the best of the genre achieves: that a whole real world is implied within a tight, imaginary garden.