Descanso for My Father

Harrison Candelaria Fletcher teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the winner of a New Letters Literary Award, High Desert Journal Obsidian Prize, Pushcart Prize Special Mention, and has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award and PEN Center Literary Award.

• AcknowledgmentsPrologueBeautiful City of TirzahWhiteAmong the Broken AngelsHardwoodMonsterRelicsWindowsMan in a BoxAshRingsOne PrayerUndercurrentConfluenceWreath

"Fletcher deftly shows us the meaning of the word 'quest'—investigation, dream, and religious pursuit all cohere around the essential mystery of one man's life. In the process, the author faces his own relics, making a large picture out of the bright shards of memory and uncertainty."—Judith Kitchen, author of Distance and Direction "An homage not only to his dad but to Harrison's own boyhood joys, sorrows and searching, the book makes clear the author's expansive literary sensibilities."—Kirkus Reviews "Fletcher's prose is simply gorgeous, and Albuquerque's cultural heritage is richly depicted in this book of essays, which adds to our understanding of family, landscape and their role in the formation of identity. An exquisite literary debut."—Rigoberto Gonzalez, El Paso Times "Ultimately it is language and a sharp eye for detail, not suspense, that pulls the reader along. . . . In a memoir-drenched era of publishing, Descanso is refreshing."—Jana Fornario, Southwestern American Literature "Descanso for My Father is laced with stories about people encountering ghosts. Candelaria Fletcher may not be clairvoyant, but he conjures up the spirits of his ancestors in this unusual and moving book."—Jenny Shank, High Country News "Like the dreamlike shadowboxes of Joseph Cornell, Fletcher assembles scraps of imagery and inherited keepsakes into an enchanting quest to understand his family's stories. . . . In the same way a painter applies the principles of negative space to a composition, Fletcher, who understands the endless possibilities of the essay form, relies on memory and observation, while safeguarding the sense of absence, the space of silence in his prose."-Jericho Parms, Rumpus