Missed Her

(Paperback)

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Description

In her passionate and humorous new collection, Ivan E. Coyote takes readers on an intimate journey, both literal and figurative, through the experiences of her life: from a year spent in eastern Canada, to her return to the west coast, to travels in-between. Whether discussing the politics of being a butch with a pet lapdog, or befriending an effeminate young man at a gay camp, or revisiting a 40-year old heartbreak in her grandmother's kitchen, Ivan traverses love, gender and identity with a wistful, perceptive eye.

Reviews

These vignettes read as though they've been freshly torn from a wanderer's notebook, where they were immediately jotted down so as not to lose the vibrancy of the experience. The result is refreshing and tearfully real--Coyote has a gift for blending the tragic and comic in a way that renders a reader gobsmacked.... The writing in Missed Her is direct yet lyrical, poetic yet unadorned, reaching simultaneously for the heart and the gut with brevity and power. --Quill & Quire (STARRED REVIEW)

With this collection, more than ever, Coyote delves into the seriousness of sexual conventions and gender roles with a wit that bridges a gap between city and country, oral and written, the self-conscious writer and the contemplative reader.
--The Globe and Mail

Her stories, all culled from her personal experience, yield a glimpse of a life not frequently spoken of in mainstream queer circles. Coyote's perspective on small town queer life resists what Judith Halberstam calls 'metronormativity, ' or the assumption that queer desire and community cannot exist fully outside of urban centers.
--Lambda Literary

My favorite book this year without a doubt has to go to Ivan Coyote's Missed Her. This collection of short stories are a honest, beautiful and complicated weaving together of queer experience that will break your heart and stitch it back together. Missed Her left me cracked open feeling raw and seen in a way that only the very best books are capable of. It's an absolute must read. --Sassafras Lowrey, editor of Kicked Out (from Band of Thebes' list of Best Books of 2010)

Warm, perceptive storytelling ... These tales, a bracing blend of self-effacing and brave, embrace universal themes within singular moments - 'Good Old Days, ' about teaching memoir writing to a class of senior citizens, both confronts Coyote's concerns about their potential prejudice and realizes the sentiment that 'love is just love.' --Richard Labonte, Book Marks

Coyote's sense of humour and genuine affection for people from all walks of life bridge urban-rural gaps that might otherwise preclude an effective exploration of the social markers that attempt and fail to define us in traditional, heterosexual terms. The effect is akin to attending a party where Coyote has invited all of her friends and family: it's a motley assortment of people and ideas, but no one feels out of place, and everyone is welcome. --Georgia Straight

Author Bio

Ivan E. Coyote is the author of four previous story collections (including 2008's Lambda-nominated The Slow Fix) and the novel Bow Grip, selected as an ALA Stonewall Honor Book. Originally from the Yukon, she now lives in Vancouver.