Dancing With a Kitchen Chair

In this vibrant collection of autobiographical essays, Sandra Rushing gracefully blends spirituality with old-fashioned honesty to communicate life's lessons and teach us what it means to be human. Set at the historic Poor House Farm in the tranquil Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, this is the story of the tragedy and mystery of growing up, the exhilaration of freedom, and the empty hunger of grief. Her Scottish father's fierce temper and unbounded generosity, her mother's Irish melancholia, and the power of the land merge and convey a passion felt on every page. Rushing's lyrical description and moving tales of strife, hope, and love craft the premise of the human journey-that "fighting and scrapping are part of it, whatever form they take," that life is a gift, and that all things have a purpose.

Before returning to the land at the center of Dancing with the Kitchen Chair, Sandra Rushing lived and worked in places as diverse as North Dakota and Metro Washington D.C. Now her home is on a mountain corner of the farm that once was her father's, her history in the ground she walks on and in the water she drinks. The author of The Magdalene Legacy and the forthcoming The Judas Legacy, she writes passionately about the past and the future. She spends the rest of her time reading, painting, and negotiating with country mice and snakes in the grass.