false 4593879 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 4593879 1 4643496 10 11 2008 Forgetting English total:24|5:14|4:5|3:4|2:1|1:0| 24 104 31 12 1913011 4.33 24 12 77897042 995077 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.39 23
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 3 0 false Sun Nov 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 15 17:05:52 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 15 17:19:21 -0800 2009
- A career-driven woman visits her sister in Tonga, who has decided to stay after serving there in the Peace Corps.

- A...more...]]> 72318802 2565247 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 5 0 false Tue Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 03:38:48 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 03:39:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 53652742 1652632 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 4 0 false Fri Apr 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 17:12:22 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 17:24:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 77206633 122928 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 5 1 false Tue Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 09 09:08:44 -0800 2009 Tue Dec 01 14:39:38 -0800 2009 The Short of It:

This collection of stories is a restorative tonic for the soul.


The Rest of It:

I am not a fan of short fiction but every now and then I give it a try and usually I am disappointed. That said, I was not disappointed by Forgetting English. In f...more...]]> 60873358 787357 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 5 0 false Tue May 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 20:09:11 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 20:09:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 48001901 736024 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 5 0 false Tue Mar 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 02 09:36:39 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 17 08:29:06 -0700 2009 an incredibly good writer - and these stories really take you to exotic locales, while probing the heart of what makes us us. A marvelous read!

...more...]]> 45772893 1803219 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 5 0 false Sun Feb 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 16:58:49 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 17:03:10 -0800 2009 more...]]> 67396776 277184 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 3 0 false Wed Aug 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 11:53:29 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 17:03:48 -0700 2009 52773776 673951 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 0 1 false Fri Apr 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 09:15:14 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 09:15:58 -0700 2009 http://www.examiner.com/x-1361-Seattle-B...]]> 61520948 2085460 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 4 0 false Thu Jul 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 29 11:29:34 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 20:11:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 65009926 1294832 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 3 0 false Wed Jul 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 10:27:28 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 10:28:04 -0700 2009 http://seattle.readinglocal.com/archives...]]> 52620713 1805085 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 5 1 false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 07:01:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 11:33:58 -0700 2009 81491803 1613539 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 0 0 false Sat Dec 19 11:47:50 -0800 2009 Sat Dec 19 11:47:50 -0800 2009 81245319 119927 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 5 0 false Wed Dec 16 18:10:32 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 16 18:10:42 -0800 2009 79977868 837927 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 0 0 false Sat Dec 05 10:25:49 -0800 2009 Sat Dec 05 10:25:49 -0800 2009 79662258 1866026 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 0 0 false Wed Dec 02 12:11:45 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 02 12:11:45 -0800 2009 78541272 726324 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 0 0 false Sat Nov 21 10:30:25 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 21 10:30:25 -0800 2009 78424640 2569899 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 4 0 false Fri Nov 20 08:21:04 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 08:21:04 -0800 2009 71993742 721459 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 5 0 false Sun Sep 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 09:44:28 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 09:44:59 -0700 2009 66997734 662972 4593879 1597660469 9781597660464 12 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4593879.Forgetting_English 4.33 24
Forgetting English explores the indelible imprint of home upon identity and the ways in which new frontiers both defy and confirm it. From a biologist navigating the icy moonscape of Antarctica to a businesswoman seeking refuge in the South Pacific, the characters who inhabit these stories travel for business and for pleasure, out of duty and in search of freedom, and each comes face-to-face with the unexpected.

Midge Raymond’s short fiction has been featured in the Los Angeles Times magazine, American Literary Review, North American Review, the Ontario Review, Witness, and others. She holds an MA from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she taught for six years, and has also worked as an editor and copywriter. She now lives in Seattle, where she teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Praise for Forgetting English:

“When you forget English, you might learn to speak the forbidden language of your sister’s Tongan lover--you might find you understand the sweet murmur of the Gentoo and the ecstatic cry of Emperor Penguins. . . . Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and Iona Moon

“Midge Raymond’s exquisitely written stories turn on relationships, and not just of one kind—between lovers, yes, but also within families, between sisters, among friends, or forged in chance encounters with strangers— and the turning often occurs in moments when the utterly mundane has abruptly conjured itself into crisis. . . . Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place. ”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Midge Raymond turns her elegant, austere sentences precisely, forcing unmediated, intimate connection with readers of her exotic tales. It's nothing short of style-alchemy, spare tales and lean words and stark characters sculpted so articulately they whisper the secrets of pure language itself. Forgetting English is well-named, a text informed by aesthetic convictions, recognizable people, alien circumstances, sentences that bind reader to writer, finally a composer's offering of untranslatable but realized emotion. Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
--Mark Kramer, Founding Director and Writer-in-Residence, Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, Harvard University



“The short-story collection Forgetting English by Seattle writer Midge Raymond transports the reader by closely observing characters' routine gestures and affect, and with carefully chosen material details which inform without contrivance. Parts of these polished stories, if read aloud, would sound like a smart patient describing a dream to a psychoanalyst. Raymond's prose often lights up the poetry-circuits of the brain, less because of lyrical language and more due to things that work as both literal and symbolic nouns: stolen rings, voice-mail messages gone astray; heavy-footed humans in the middle of fragile habitats. … This isn't Chick Lit. Raymond has an unusual ability (not unlike writer Jim Harrison in his early fiction) to create utterly female or decidedly male characters who feel like kindred spirits regardless of where the reader sits on the gender continuum.” --The Seattle Times
]]> 2008 0 0 false Tue Aug 11 15:47:46 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 15:47:46 -0700 2009 8 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=4593879