Back to the Garden: Collected Works

Back to the Garden is a carefully curated selection of my favorite poems, essays, and letters from my first four published works, accompanied by brand new illustrations. It borrows its title from a line in the song "Woodstock," which Joni Mitchell first performed live at the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival. We are stardustBillion year old carbonWe are goldenCaught in the devil's bargainAnd we've got to get ourselvesBack to the garden When I wrote my first book in 2019, and published it in early 2020, I was an entirely different version of myself than I am now. The same, of course, can be said for each subsequent book, as we are malleable creatures in perpetual metamorphosis. Each book is a time capsule of who I was when I wrote it, with a personality and energy of its own:  This is Just What it's Like Sometimes is raw and hopeful—an exercise in processing grief and healing through heartbreak. Many of the essays are about personal growth and autonomy. Writing this book helped me