Lynn Miller with Julie Williams

About the Book:

These characters—young and old, queer and straight, contemporary and historical—often find themselves in defining moments and crisis situations. As they search through memories seeking truth and meaning, they grapple with not only the past and present but, at heart, themselves.

Stretching the definition of “archive,” Miller builds interconnected webs that surprise, much like the seemingly random papers collected in a box of materials. Fraught relationships, mistaken identities, mysterious disappearances, and the search for love play out in these stories. Friendships are celebrated, ex-husbands cross the line, and Gertrude Stein attempts to write her memoir. 

An unusual collection that proves greater than the sum of its parts, The Lost Archive will haunt readers with the intensity of its vision.

Praise:

“As Lynn Miller’s people search the archives of their lives to establish or reestablish their purpose, she shows us, file by file, story by story, how intimately we are all connected to each other. The Lost Archive is laced through with humor and heartache, interwoven with strange, charmed moments of joy.”

—Jesse Lee Kercheval, author of Underground Women

“Miller’s The Lost Archive gives us an astonishing and pleasing array of styles and modes in stories that both move and surprise us with their depth and inventiveness. Ranging from a tiny yet powerful gem in which a young girl learns that her father gets letters from a secret child to a compelling treatment of the turmoil in Gertrude Stein’s household, this collection shows a virtuoso’s command of short fiction’s full range.”

—C. W. Smith, author of Girl Flees Circus

“These twenty-two stories are pinned with precision into four exhibits showcasing unexpected human behavior. Lynn Miller highlights the decisions we make, big and small, that bring us together and pull us apart. Memory is key—the fallibility of it and the way in which it makes each of our lives a distorted dream. I fell into this book nose-first and didn’t stop furrowing until I came out the other side.”

—Sherrie Flick, author of Thank Your Lucky Stars and Whiskey, Etc.

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About The Author:

Julie Williams is a writer and mixed-media artist living in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. She has two published novels, the award-winning novel-in-poems, Escaping Tornado Season (HarperCollins 2004) and Drama Queens in the House (Macmillan, 2014). Her four-part poem, “Memorial Day,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Recently her poems have been featured in the podcast, The Unruly Muse, hosted by Lynn C. Miller and John Modaff. Julie was an adjunct professor for many years at California State University, Northridge, teaching performance studies classes and doing administrative work for the Educational Opportunity Program. In addition to a daily art and writing practice, she is currently at work compiling a collection of poems.

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