Miraculous, Sometimes

"'I would fashion my existence of debris' is Meg Shevenock's apt take on her work: to find value in that which is thought to have none, even trauma. While a live wire of harm and confusion powerfully hums here, the real accomplishment of this book is its intimacy, the degree to which I was allowed to experience a mind creating pattern and sense. I don't know how to put this--there was almost a double haunting: I became a ghost inside her way of thinking as it came to haunt me. I can't recall being more movingly reminded that consciousness is an embrace, that what we create is a confession of affection. Here, more than wounds, than breaks, their wake and what can be made of it is loved: 'I have defined the day by what I make or not.' Rooted in pain and complexity, The Miraculous, Sometimes is a beautiful meditation on the experience and purpose of art, a demonstration that we live our aesthetics.--Bob Hicok, final judge."--Publisher's website.