An Arrangement of Skin Essays Author:Anna Journey Anna Journey?s lyrical and layered arrangement of essays dazzles with her reflections on our shifting selves?the many ?skins? we inhabit in a life. An Arrangement of Skin is by turns beguiling, dark, carnal, and deeply personal. Journey revels in the flexibility and hybridity of the essay form, enriching her idiosyncratic anecdotes with literary... more » and cultural meditations and electrifying the work with a poet?s keen ear and canny eye.
These essays swerve artfully among topics?a recollection of a personal rupture and ensuing call to a suicide hotline opens into a consideration of taxidermy and lyric time; a mother?s penchant for telling macabre stories at the dinner table connects to campfire songs and the cultural importance of American roots music; and a tattoo artist named after a pirate-themed rum reminds us how we inscribe our skins and spirits through the intimate gestures of ink. This is a first collection from an essayist of the highest order.« less