Year of Plenty

B.J. Hollars is the author or editor of more than a dozen books. The founder and executive director of the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild, he is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire.

• I. BeforeNovember 4, 2020November 24, 2020December 17, 2020December 24, 2020December 25, 2020December 25, 2020 (continued)Interview #1: Winter 2022January 27, 2021February 13, 2021Bear Country: January–February 2015February 20, 2021March 19–22, 2021March 23, 2021April 16, 2021April 18, 2021Punch Line: March 2014May 1, 2021May 18, 2021Interview #2: Winter 2022May 29, 2021May 29, 2021 (continued)Good Dog: March 2020May 30, 2021June 1, 2021June 2, 2021June 5, 2021June 5, 2021 (continued)June 5, 2021 (continued)Interview #3: Winter 2022June 7, 2021June 8, 2021II. DuringJune 12, 2021Interview #4: Winter 2022June 12, 2021 (continued)Safely Ashore: June 2004June 16, 2021June 16, 2021 (continued)June 17, 2021June 17, 2021 (continued)June 18, 2021Interview #5: Winter 2022June 18, 2021 (continued)June 19, 2021June 19, 2021 (continued)June 19, 2021 (continued)In the Adobe Hotel in Santa Fe: January 3, 2017June 19, 2021 (continued)June 20, 2021Final Cancer Treatment Preceded by a Surprise: June 21, 2021Steve BallJune 23, 2021Interview #6: Winter 2022June 24, 2021June 25, 2021June 26, 2021June 28, 2021June 28, 2021 (continued)Interview #7: Winter 2022June 28, 2021 (continued)June 28, 2021 (continued)June 28, 2021 (continued)Interview #8: Winter 2022June 29, 2021June 29, 2021 (continued)June 29, 2021 (continued)III. AfterAugust 8, 2021August 10, 2021The Wild Horses of Tybee Island: February 1, 2018August 10, 2021 (continued)August 16, 2021August 20, 2021August 21, 2021August 21, 2021 (continued)September 10, 2021September 26, 2021Interview #9: Winter 2022September 28, 2021November 24, 2021November 25, 2021December 26, 2021December 28, 2021What Death Is: 2023December 29, 2021March 13, 2022August 2022Interview #10: Winter 2022ObituaryAcknowledgments

“When B.J. Hollars is in college, working as a counselor at a camp for child cancer survivors, a ten-year-old boy explains that the feeling of dying is ‘like being alive, only. . . you notice things.’ In Year of Plenty, Hollars helps show us how it’s possible to stay present, how to notice, even--or especially--when we’re in the thick of it. I fell in love with this whole beautiful family--and then I took some of that cracked-open-heart tenderness back to my own dear ones.” - Jill Christman, author of If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays“An exquisite account. Interspersed by gorgeous, haunting photographs, the book documents the everyday delightful minutiae of Hollars’s three young children and everyone’s search for memory and meaning in the face of death. One of the most tender, big-hearted accounts of grief and love I’ve ever read, Year of Plenty will joyfully, tearfully remind every reader of life’s bounty.” - Tessa Fontaine, author of The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts