Guest Post: All the Roads That Lead from Home by Anne Leigh Parrish

I asked Anne Leigh Parrish to tell us something about the origin of the stories in her new book:


"The elevenstories in All The Roads That Lead From Home take place or are associated with the fictional town of Dunston, NewYork. Dunston represents Ithaca, home ofCornell University, where I was born. Atfourteen I moved out of state. When I wentback, many, many years later, I found the town had never left me. It was a shock to feel how strong my memorieswere, and how deep they went. One way oranother, the stories I wrote afterwards set themselves there.


"The Dunston in my collection may resemblethe real town only on the surface. There's the lake, the rolling hills, the brutal winters.  The campus and the gorges appear, too, alsothe problem of student suicides that made the papers last year. To my mind, an outline of  place is enough to evoke the fuller substance,if rendered carefully.  I hope Isucceeded.


"As I was seized by the past, so arethe people in my stories. A woman isvisited by her mother's ghost who takes up residence in order to deliver acryptic message of redemption. Anothergrapples with a long-held belief that her father doesn't love her. One is haunted by a lie she told as a way tocope with her sister's death. 


"Overall I'd say that my goal with the collectionwas to suggest that while roads take us away from home, they can, quiteunexpectedly, return us to what we left behind and what might claim us oncemore."


For more information, visit Anne's website, Anne Leigh Parrish, or her book's page at Press 53: All the Roads That Lead from Home.