Ordinary Skin: Essays from Willow Springs

Amy Hale Auker’s first book of essays, Rightful Place, was the story of awoman fi nding beauty in her place, the Llano Estacado. Her new collectionof creative non-fi ction, Ordinary Skin, explores her mid-life transitionwith prose poems and essays that illustrate a new terrain as well as new ways ofbeing in the world. Touching on faith and body image and belonging, these essays explore ourrole in deciding what is favorable or unfavorable, as well as where we somedaywant to dwell, and who came before us. In that touching, they feel their way withobservations about current affairs, drought, mystery, and the hard decisionsthat face us all as we continue to move toward more questions with fewer answers.This exploration is informed and softened by hummingbirds, Gila monsters,bats, foxes, bears, wildfl owers, and hidden seep springs where life goes onwhether we are there to see it or not. It is about work in a wild and wildernessenvironment. In the end, even as life changes drastically around us, we are betteroff for knowing that the ugly mud bug turns into a jewel-toned dragonfly.