Daughter in Retrograde: A Memoir

by Courtney Kersten

Overview

When she isn't eavesdropping on family gossip or gazing at taxidermy squirrels in smoky dives, Courtney Kersten charts the uncertainty of her midwestern homeland by looking to the stars and planets. As a teen she had plunged deep into the worlds of signs, symbols, and prophecy. But as her mother-her traveling companion into these spheres-lies dying, Kersten must learn to navigate without the person who always lit the way. Their last journey together, to swim in a Wisconsin lake, is a bittersweet, darkly comic, poignant climax to this transformative memoir.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299317041
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	12/23/2021
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Courtney Kersten is an essayist and scholar. A native of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, she teaches creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her essays can be found in River Teeth, Hotel Amerika, DIAGRAM, The Sonora Review, Black Warrior Review, and The Master's Review.

Table of Contents

Prologue
The Axis Point                       
 
Part One: The Retrograde Pre-Shadow
Tarot               
Off Script                   
Sally’s Chart              
Five Years                  
The Lake                    
Small Town Girls                   
Signs              
 
Part Two: Retrograde Station
Holes              
Viszontlátásra!                       
WELCO                     
Star Shit                     
Moses             
Don’t—Tell—Dad                 
Elvis               
Pawn It                      
Richard                      
Fish                
Virginia’s Closet                    
Triple Pit                    
Sing                
Freaks             
Prayer Blanket           
Commercials              
Eileen             
Say Hello to Your Grandparents Before They Fly Away!                
Actors            
Birthday                     
Vicky             
Kneel              
Pit                   
Gimme           
Four Hours                 
 
Part Three: Retrograde Direct Station
Wilma             
Our Stuff                   
Vader             
Split                
Sarajevo                     
Viktorijas                   
 
Part Four: Post-Retrograde Shadow
Plunge            
 
Acknowledgments