“Stories are compasses and architecture; we navigate by them, we build our sanctuaries and our prisons out of them, and to be without a story is to be lost in the vastness of a world that spreads in all directions like arctic tundra or sea ice.”
—Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby
Travel removes us from the familiar. The expectation of the travel narrative is exploration of the unknown; to turn a corner or come into a clearing, where we have never been before and the unexpected becomes possible. The travel narrative has a rich and varied history. From the Bible, to Homer’s Odyssey, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Gulliver’s Travels, to Kerouac’s On the Road. What is it about the travel narrative that makes it so attractive to writers and readers? What can we expect to encounter along the way?
Lynette D’Amico will read from her recently published novella, Road Trip, and talk about the appeal of the travel narrative and the exploration of the unknown.
Join us Sunday 12 July
Potluck dinner begins at 6:00 pm
Lynette begins sharing at 6:45
At the home of Susan Clark
6330 Southwood Avenue
Unit 2E
St Louis, MO, 63105
Road Trip
On this road trip, the past is a boneyard, up ahead is the end of the line, and along the way Myra Stark and Pinkie are driving a 1984 Plymouth Turismo from Minnesota through Wisconsin. The travelers pick up a battered hitchhiker, follow a detour into the darkly comic Stark family history, and veer off track more than once. Road Trip is a narrative of disappointment and failed rescues; about the ghosts that haunt us and the relationships we leave behind.
Lynette D’Amico worked in publishing and advertising for more than a decade. Today, she is a former ad writer and a graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. Her work has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Ocean State Review and at Brevity and Slag Glass City. Road Trip was a finalist for the Paris Literary Prize and, as part of a collection, for the 2012 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is the content editor for the online performance journal HowlRound. Born in Buffalo, New York, she has lived in St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Chicago. She currently makes her home in Boston.
