In Memoriam:
The Meaning of Water by Marianne Ware
Special Release: not available from bookstores or other online booksellers! This promising new book is available exclusively at this location, for a limited time only!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

This collection of stories by Marianne Ware runs the gamut from intense childhood experiences to contemporary satire aimed at genealogists, would-be poetry contest winners and Vegan dietary diehards. The title piece tells of a young girl who becomes a veritable “wild child,” exploring the rough and idyllic terrain of the camp her parents manage in upstate New York. Then a city boy visits the camp and convinces her to introduce him to her secret haunts and teach him all she knows about the natural world, especially bodies of water. Unfortunately, he betrays both her generosity and her trust. Other stories explore the nature and origins of sexual guilt and the mind and heart of a vicarious mother. The most controversial piece probes the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of molesting the daughters of his older woman lover. The protagonist tells the story in his poor, white, “Okie” vernacular, leaving the reader to decide if his rationale offers irrefutable proof of his guilt or innocence.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

The late Marianne Ware retired from teaching English and Creative Writing at Santa Rosa Junior College. She received her MFA degree from Vermont College in 1984 and began a twenty-year teaching career at SRJC. She was a founder of the Russian River Writers’ Guild and fostered its twenty-five-year-long reading series, the first literary venue in Sonoma County. She has published poetry, fiction and non-fiction in more than a hundred literary magazines, anthologies and tabloids. These include: Red Diaper Babies: Growing up in the Communist Left (University of Illinois Press); Salt Water, Sweet Water and Cartwheels on the Faultline (Florient Press). Her work has also appeared in Iowa Woman, the Modularist Review, Green Fuse and many others. She was also the recipient of an NEA grant for her fiction. Her poetry chapbook, Bodies Nearly Touching, was published by Doris Green Editions. A satiric novel, The Warzog Era, followed.