Satisfying. Brilliant. Necessary. A beautiful and masterfully written collection of poems whose words evoke a sense of movement that beckons us back to the page and to the places we belong. – Loic Ekinga, author of How to Wake a Butterfly
Anne Leigh Parrish’s an open door lets readers step back into an America trapped between World War II and the impending sexual revolution, a world whose turbulent desires lurk just below a veneer of specious innocence. Edith Sloan, married to a man who fails to appreciate either her poetic instincts or romantic longings, throws herself into management of a bookshop—but finds herself drawn toward infidelity and independence. With Parrish’s trademark gift for emotional nuance and the subtleties of social engagement, she once again stuns with a novel that is moving, inspiring and deeply authentic to both the sensibilities of its age and the mystery of the human experience. —Jacob M. Appel, author of Millard Salter’s Last Day
Anne Leigh Parrish’s poems in The Moon Won’t Be Dared are an extended meditation that weaves through time and humanity, injustices and struggles, but with an eye towards love and beauty. These captivating poems carry an underlining ache of loss—past and future—but they are grounded in the present, in beetle and spider, in river and forest, in the windows that look into the yard. Parrish writes we can only burn slowly over time, and we see this book is full of light—fire, streetlight, smokelight, garden light, twilight, starlight, and in fact, darkness/becomes light when the world bears us/along. This is a voice willing to convey what isn’t working in the world, but also to always acknowledge what is—a child of the night/who lived on moonlight and cold sparkle stars. Parrish’s poems feed us, and they will hold us long enough/to tinge the dawn with hope. – Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press)
An outstanding, unsentimental portrait of family, love, and unavoidable hardships. – Kirkus Reviews
Anne Leigh Parrish’s collection, What Nell Dreams, lets readers peer into lives at that precious moment of transition and discovery. – Pam McGaffin, author of The Leaving Year
In the spirit of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and David Swift’s The Parent Trap, Anne Leigh Parrish’s rollicking fourth novel, Maggie’s Ruse, grapples with the consequences of mistaking one identical twin for the other. – Jacob Appel, author of Millard Salter’s Last Day
Anne Leigh Parrish’s, The Amendment, is a beautifully written story about a new widow’s struggle to wrap her mind around her husband’s death by setting off on a cross-country journey in search of she knows not what. Parrish’s prose is eloquent yet crisp, moving the story along quickly. The Amendment is at times funny, quirky and endearingly touching. A delightful must-read, sure to take its place among today’s top literary fiction! -Michelle Cox, author of The Henrietta and Inspector Howard Series.
Relevant and expertly arranged, this novel is composed of stirring and sympathetic trials and tribulations. A finely crafted tale of three outcast women, their struggles, and their lives. – Foreword Reviews
Stand up women everywhere! Fantastic and inspirational! – 2017 Maxy Awards, Best Fiction Winner
Marvelous. Honest. Generous. From the first story to the last, “By the Wayside” catches your attention and demands that you give into its every whirl. Each character unfolds with a precision that will have you wondering how Parrish managed to create such real-to-the-bones people within a world that captivates you with ease. – Unsolicited Press
Anne Leigh Parrish’s fine debut novel, What Is Found, What Is Lost, is a moving and graceful tale that delves deeply into the histories of two sisters, Freddie and Holly. The women reinvent their lives and fortunes as adults, but despite new identities, find they must learn to navigate the complex network of family ties and family lies that bind them together. Parrish, in clear, deft prose, explores the meaning of motherhood, faith, loyalty, and tenderness; effortless, she carries her readers through four generations of one family’s checkered history of love. – Mary Akers, author of Bones Of An Inland Sea
Parrish weaves linked, darkly humorous tales of aging, death, love and alcoholism using the gothic tropes of Southern literary fiction. A successful collage of linked stories set in a rich, dysfunctional world. – Kirkus Reviews
Anne Leigh Parrish has written a collection of stories that deserve a place on the shelf next to Raymond Carver, Tom Boyle, Richard Bausch, and other investigators of lives gone wrong. Parrish writes with painful clarity about marriages turned sour, children at war with their parents, women drifting from one damaging relationship to another, and about unexpected acts of generosity-an impoverished woman giving her battered piano to a priest who had befriended her, a schoolgirl who bribes a boy to pretend an interest in an overweight classmate, then finds that her kindness has disastrous consequences. These are potent and artful stories, from a writer who warrants attentive reading. – C. Michael Curtis, Fiction Editor, The Atlantic Monthly