"What is it like to live on an island?"
Author Christina Marsden Gillis hears this question often; Where Edges Don't Hold is her passionate and thoughtful reply. In this collection of powerful essays, Gillis gives us the example of Gotts Island, a small land mass off the coast of Maine where she has spent all the summers of her adult life, a place where all roads lead to the sea, and tidal cycles govern the passage of time.
The four sections of Gillis' collection celebrate what she describes as an island in motion. "Geography in Motion" reminds us that movement, like the tides, affects perspective and perception. "Recognition" presents the pleasure of "knowing again," recalling places and experiences from the past and seeing their relevance in the present. In "Quarries," an abandoned quarry site serves as a metaphor for unearthing stories, histories, and identity. "Crossings," concluding the book, questions and tests boundaries and firm margins that limit experience and potential.
In the smallest of moments, Gillis sees profound themes; in a small island with ever-changing edges she finds a place in which to anchor a life.
About the Author: Christina Marsden Gillis's work has been published in such diverse publications as House Beautiful, Death Studies, Journal of Medical Humanities, Raritan, Island Journal, Hotel Amerika, Bellevue Literary Review, and Southwest Review. Immersing herself in a specific place and teasing out the region's history, lore, and ecology, she considers herself an environmental writer who focuses on the spirit of a place, its human and natural interconnections.
In a series of powerful essays In Where Edges Don't Hold, Gillis shares with readers insights derived from spending every summer of her adult life on Gotts Island, off the coast of Maine.
Gillis received her doctorate in English with an emphasis in eighteenth-century literature and was the founding associate director of the Townsend Center for the Humanities at UC Berkeley. Her previous book, Writing on Stone, explores her special relationship with Gotts Island following the death of her son in a tragic accident.
