Weave Me a Crooked Basket

Charles Goodrich is the former director of Oregon State University's Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word. He is the author of a collection of personal essays, The Practice of Home, and four books of poetry: Watering the Rhubarb, A Scripture of Crows, Going to Seed, and Insects of South Corvallis. Goodrich is also the coeditor of two anthologies: Forest Under Story and In the Blast Zone. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon.

• Cover PageCopyright PagePart Part I: June 2008Chapter 1 • UrsulaChapter 2 • BodieChapter 3 • NuChapter 4 • UrsulaChapter 5 • BodieChapter 6 • NuChapter 7 • UrsulaChapter 8 • BodieChapter 9 • NuChapter 10 • UrsulaChapter 11 • BodieChapter 12 • NuChapter 13 • UrsulaChapter 14 • BodieChapter 15 • NuChapter 16 • UrsulaChapter 17 • BodieChapter 18 • NuPart Part II: July 2008Chapter 19 • UrsulaChapter 20 • BodieChapter 21 • NuChapter 22 • UrsulaChapter 23 • BodieChapter 24 • NuChapter 25 • UrsulaChapter 26 • BodieChapter 27 • NuPart Part III: September 2008Chapter 28 • UrsulaChapter 29 • BodieChapter 30 • NuChapter 31 • UrsulaChapter 32 • BodieChapter 33 • NuChapter 34 • UrsulaChapter 35 • BodieChapter 36 • NuChapter 37 UrsulaChapter 38 • BodieChapter Epilogue • October 2014 • UrsulaAcknowledgmentsAbout the Author

You can tell that Charles Goodrich is both a gifted writer and an attentive gardener, giving us a heartening story that is grounded in the way that land and people can heal each other. He has cultivated characters so memorable that I missed them as soon as I read the last page." —Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of the New York Times bestseller Braiding Sweet Grass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants "Goodrich masterfully weaves an intricate and deeply satisfying story. It's a beautiful book in its rich language and profoundly honest voice—funny and smart in its observations. Weave Me a Crooked Basket is a thrilling read and a much-needed antidote to our time, reminding us we can fully embrace the power of the human spirit."— Keith Scribner, author of Old Newgate Road, winner of the 2020 Connecticut Book Award "I haven't read a novel in a long time that felt this hopeful, this authentic in feeling, in landscape, in the complexities of the lives of its people—ordinary people who are not only farmers and gardeners but artists and biologists and immigrants, wives and husbands, sisters and brothers. It's a marvelous book, written with immense compassion and honesty, insight and detail. I loved it." — Molly Gloss, author of The Jump-Off Creek and The Hearts of Horses "Weave Me a Crooked Basket testifies to a potent vision—small farmers, artists, tattooed hair-stylists, footballers, yoga teachers, schoolkids, and cranky octogenarians rising in community when the engines of Corporate Greed come rumbling their way."— John Daniel, author of Gifted and Lighted Distances "Charles Goodrich's writing shines with a deep knowledge of the land and climate of Western Oregon. His story demonstrates an overall ethic of care for this land. Read Weave Me a Crooked Basket—for the characters you will know and love, and for the way Goodrich brings the place alive."— Lawrence Coates, professor of English and creative writing, Bowling Green State University, author of The Goodbye House: A Novel"Weave Me a Crooked Basket is the good news we've been waiting for: community matters, love heals, care and attention are the greatest of gifts, art is wonderfully re-arranging, the rich soil, well-tended, holds us all, and the work, despite our griefs, goes on. Charles Goodrich has written an exceptionally beautiful, life-giving novel."— Joe Wilkins, author of Fall Back Down When I Die and The Mountain and the Fathers