When her mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the author returns to letters they'd exchanged years before, to foster her mother's engagement with reading and thinking. Bird-bent Grass uses excerpts from their correspondence to explore memory, illness, friendship, conflict, cross-cultural communication, and letters' timeless power.

Kathleen Venema spent several years as a junior-high teacher in northern Manitoba before joining a teacher-training college in post-civil-war Uganda. Now an associate professor of English at the University of Winnipeg, she publishes on early Canadian exploration texts and imperial women's letters; researches narratives of conflict, aging, disability, and care; and pursues a lifelong interest in transformative pedagogy.

you come home. we need to talk

1. perfect correspondence

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crosswords (1)

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2. crosswords

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holy shipwreck (1)

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crosswords (11)

3. post secret

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4. new meadow

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crosswords (12)

post secret (10)

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holy shipwreck (3)

5. holy shipwreck

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new meadow (7)

perfect correspondence (11)

postscript: waiting for you here