In the Zone is Laura Chester’s own selection of poems, prose poems, and stories from 1970 to 1988, the first two decades of her career. Erotic, dreamlike, and unashamed, they constitute the personal history of a literary sensualist.
Laura Chester writes of this early work: “I’ve always understood that a poem, or any piece of writing, has something of its own life, its own force, but now I see that it can also become part of a greater upward or downward spiral. I do not want to limit myself to the perpendicular of intellectualism, nor the squiggles of siren stuff, but I do want to be receptive to the unpredictable curve, letting a wholeness come through me, thought, word, and feeling inseparable, inspiration firmly linked to the craft-work of shaping. Writing for me has got to be grand.”
A fine achievement. I am delighted.
—Carl RakosiThis is powerful stuff, often beautifully obscure, with undercurrents that constantly tug at the shoals of sanity.
—BooklistHer stories and poems are vivid . . . moving . . . engrossing. As a matter of fact, her writing is addictive.
—Small Press Review