What is Midge Raymond reading?

The current featured contributor to Writers Read: Midge Raymond, author of the short-story collection, Forgetting English.

Her entry includes a book of poetry, a novel, a short-story collection ... and a work of non-fiction:

The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer and Jim Mason

This is an incredibly well researched, thoughtful, and intelligent look at the food industry. The authors look at three American families and their diets (one consuming a “standard American diet,” one all organic, and one vegan) and trace all these foods back to their sources, raising interesting (and not so clear-cut) philosophical, ethical, and environmental questions along the way. Not a cheery read, by any means, but an important one.[read on]

Raymond's short-story collection, Forgetting English (Eastern Washington University Press, 2009), received the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. Her work has appeared in American Literary Review, Ontario Review, Indiana Review, North American Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Passages North, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

Among the praise for Forgetting English:

“Midge Raymond’s stories are a revelation and a delight, a journey from the frozen desert at the bottom of the world to the lush rainforest of Hawai’i. Prepare yourself to think in Chinese, to start over, to reveal your worst crime and discover you are a stranger to yourself, born again into a world where all things become wondrous and new, terrifying and possible.”
—Melanie Rae Thon, author of First, Body and Sweet Hearts

“Raymond’s eye for telling detail is very fine, as one expects of an accomplished writer, but to this she adds the informing eye of a natural historian of place.”
—John Keeble, author of Nocturnal America

“Raymond will be noticed; she's written at a height of elegance and authenticity that no teacher can quite bestow, but that any reader will feel. Forgetting English reminds us why we read new writers.”
—Mark Kramer, Writer-in-Residence, Harvard University

Read an excerpt from Forgetting English, and learn more about the author and her work at Midge Raymond's website.

Writers Read: Midge Raymond.

--Marshal Zeringue