Heather Kirn Lanier
Heather Lanier is the author of four poetry collections and a memoir, Raising a Rare Girl, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice. She lives in the Garden State, and although she does not garden, she’ll gladly listen to you talk about yours.
The Good End of Pleasant Street
When our landlords came by to introduce themselves, they stood beside a shelf of our books on how to avoid suffering: “Develop a mind that clings to nothing,” said the Buddhist Diamond Sutra; Be Here Now, read the spine of a Ram Dass book. Dan was a general contractor and wore a flat cap and a half grin. Or a sneer. I wasn’t sure which.
June 2026Two Weeks After A Silent Retreat
How quickly I lose my love / of all things. I nearly flick an ant / off the cliff of an armchair.
May 2020The R-Word
When he diagnosed my three-month-old, Fiona, with a chromosomal disorder, the redheaded, cherubic medical geneticist did not use the phrase “mentally retarded” — thank God, or the gods of rhetoric, or just the politically correct medical school the young doctor had attended.
May 2015Teaching My Daughter To Walk
If my daughter had been born to the Ashanti people in Ghana, she would have been abandoned at the riverbank.
January 2014Twelve Reasons To Cry
Asking, “When was the last time you cried?” is even more personal than asking someone’s salary or weight.
January 2013Hold Everything Lightly And Nothing Will Hurt Us
I’m driving north on I-95. The asphalt rushes beneath my tires, and when the speedometer hits eighty, the steering wheel vibrates in my hands, this little sedan protesting. The trees along the interstate burn orange and gold, and the northern half of the East Coast stretches ahead of me. I’m driving north on I-95 in October, which means I feel like someone is dying.
January 2012Has something we published moved you? Fired you up? Did we miss the mark? We’d love to hear about it.
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