Wedding of the Foxes

Reviews / Votes

Praise for Wedding of the Foxes:

"A lucid, thought provoking collection."-Library Journal

"Through braided, collage and epistolary essays, Larson's story of repair is told in bits, fragments that become a whole."-Tucson Weekly

"The great wisdom of Katherine Larson's work comes, I think, in equal parts from her relationship with nature, with time, and, from that, self. Her curiosity and ability to range wide as well as deep recalls the writing of Annie Dillard and Rebecca Solnit, among others. Writing is brilliant tonic even amidst the flames. Especially amidst the flames. I'm grateful for it."-Rick Bass, author of With Every Great Breath

"I have never read a book quite like Wedding of the Foxes. Lyric, gritty, vulnerable, tender, formally smart, powerfully quiet, the book finds in twilight and shadow depths nuanced feeling and reflection. Poet and biologist Katherine Larson finds herself in this 'age of grief and extinction' building a home for herself inside Japanese literature. Among her inspirations are Tanizaki and Godzilla, along with Bachelard, Ponge, and Sontag. But fear not, there is no theoretical posturing here. Larson's connections to these authors, frequently rendered in letters, feel intimate, as if she were in conversation with dear friends. Her letter to Ota Yoko, a woman who survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and shaped the literature of that disaster, is an exercise of love and admiration. The reader feels how deeply Americans are bonded to the Japanese people through the violence we inflicted upon them. It all adds up to an exploration in 'the practice of repair'-of a teapot, a self, a culture. 'The pandemic,' Larson writes, 'led to different ways of seeing and listening.' Not wanting either numbness or escape, she turns to facing the scars that mark the psyche, the monsters within, and the balm of nature. This is a brilliant book and one to treasure in a time of extremity."-Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of Blue Flax & Yellow Mustard Flower

"In this exquisite essay collection, Katherine Larson connects to her subjects in a manner that is fresh and daring. Whether they be Japanese women writers or species on the verge of extinction, she doesn't just admire them from a distance as the 'other.' Because distance is still distance, even out of respect, and she believes in interconnectedness among beings instead of harsh boundaries. She wants to give back to those other lives by evoking their particular presences, showing how each altered her and intertwining their stories with her own life narrative. You must read this book. It will change how you see, how you love."-Miho Nonaka, author of The Museum of Small Bones




Praise for Radial Symmetry

"Larson elides the lyric's sensual impulsivity with biology's reasoned patience. [. . .] Bracingly artful [. . .] Radial Symmetry marks the arrival of a poet whose work merits many readings."-Alison Hawthorne Deming, Orion

"Larson's repose is also a quivering suspension, in which multiple perceptions, multiple elements are held in extended and mysterious relation."-Louise Glueck, foreword for Radial Symmetry

"Larson explores how science and art collapse into each other, articulating her experiences in sensual, Cartesian terms-and the result is work that is both intellectually and emotionally engaging. [. . .] She sees the scientist and artist, pain and pleasure, the present and past, and traces circles around all of them, "beginning to end," with herself as their center. And so she writes."-Ploughshares