Loss and sorrow can overwhelm even the strongest person, forcing them to reckon with their emotions whether they want to or not. In this extraordinary debut, Laura Julier recounts her reckoning, which took place in an old cabin tucked away on a hidden and forgotten gravel road along the Iowa River. In company with silence and snow, with eagles, owls, and a host of other birds, Julier finds solace and begins to emerge from the dark corners of grief. Over time, she comes to understand she cannot bury grief or turn aside from loss but must walk in its presence, awake and humble, until, at last, she finds her own wholeness within it.
Laura Julier is former editor of Fourth Genre. She is the coeditor of Nonfiction, the Teaching of Writing, and the Influence of Richard Lloyd-Jones. She currently works as a hospital chaplain and lives in Iowa City.
Preface: Holy place Overture: Early March, off Izaak Walton Road Part I: Snow, Fire, Silence Once I owned a house This is not the place It began like this Izaak Walton Road Loss Days' waning light Leaving Part II: Wind, Wood, Memory On the walls 1 The cabin The gift On the mantel Sleeping with animals On the walls 2 The space outside Derecho Part III: Sky, Road, Blood January Woodstoves Massacre at the cabin, or Where's the carcass? Bald eagles The owl Wherein I rescue the latest mouse In which no good deed goes unpunished A pleasant interlude The wisdom of cliche Things have come to this In which pride goeth before a fall Listening to the river Bald eagles, again Seeing birds A reaction delayed Bird notes 1: I begin to pay attention We walk the road Bird notes 2: By the book Bird notes 3: The body knows before knowing remembers City girl Neighbors The barred owl, again The marsh Bird notes 4: If you ignore it, they will come Rising thermals In the ditches The wildlife inside In which I am taunted I step outside in late June In which I finally outsmart the cat The last rescue Leaving, again Season end Part IV: Earth, Marsh, Skin Going home The marsh, differently Accident or refuge Izaak Walton's league Rescue Roadkill Garbage Target Johnson County Quarry Izaak and I, fishing Ownership James McCollister's farm First records First nations First flood: From Devonian sea to the river outside my door Ownership, differently Part V: River, Night, Prayer In the middle of the river River's sludge The river's course Damming the river The flood of the century As long as you choose to live here Wetlands On the river Part VI: The locked cabin, the swollen river, the riven road, the open heart I am locked out The next house and the next Circling The river reclaims the land After the flood The open heart Acknowledgments
"Laura Julier in Off Izaak Walton Road marks out the perimeter of the losses in her life, not by confiding them to the page but by careful indirection. She brings the reader with her as she retreats to a house on a rural road and season by season discovers the particulars of the world that goes on without all of us. Her power of attention is formidable, and her prose is at every point lucid." - Sven Birkerts, author of The Miro Worm and the Mysteries of Writing "Off Izaak Walton Road asks us why some places hold a grip on our imaginations, what it is about these places that allows us to be more fully ourselves, and how these places change the stories we tell about who we are and the world in which we live. Written with clarity, candor, and a tenderness of attention that is profoundly moving, this book shows the often-transformative power of loss, solace, and joy." - Lacy M. Johnson, judge for the 2024 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize
