Selected Prose

Bobbie Louise Hawkins captures the sound of the human voice on the page with grace and honesty and allegiance to the music of the way people talk, interact, lie to themselves (and others), make speeches, converse. Her (dis)comfort zone is the fine line between past and present, who you want to be and who you are, and she always knows when to stop. Applause to Barbara Henning for gathering these minimalist-epic tales all in one place, a keepsake for the ages.
—Lewis Warsh

When Bobbie Louise Hawkins sets out to tell a story, a spell is cast. The entrancement of her narrative and her vivacity for real people in the quotidian of real human situations is impeccable. What supreme fortune to have her voice among us and to have now available this selected prose of her work. A prose Electric with Life!
—Maureen Owen

Bobbie Louise Hawkins is a remarkable master of the witty understated prose sentence and writes in the lineage of Barbara Pym and Jane Bowles; she is also a fabulous storyteller with a great ear for the “very thing”: quip or bon mot. She should be more discovered and read beyond her adoring fans at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics where Bobbie presided as a grande dame teacher and consummate genius performer of her work many years. This collection is a terrific revival!
—Anne Waldman