The Deep Limitless Air A Memoir in Pieces

<p class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Mary Allen</strong> is the author of <em>The Rooms of Heaven</em>, published by Alfred A. Knopf and Vintage Books. She received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 2002. Her work has appeared in <em>Poets &amp; Writers</em>, <em>Tiferet</em>, <em>Real Simple</em>, <em>Library Journal</em>, CNN On-line, <em>The Chaos</em>, <em>Shenandoah</em>, <em>Spoon River Poetry Review</em>, and in the anthology <em>If I Don't Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings</em>. She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has taught at the University of Iowa.&nbsp;She lives in Iowa City and is a full-time writing coach.</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">ENDORSEMENTS</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">"Mary Allen's effortlessly original voice addresses the reader with startling simplicity and moral clarity, whether she is introducing us to the tender friendship between a young woman and a celebrated octogenarian, or allowing us to see through her eyes the beautiful solemnity of monks at their devotions, or tracing her own strange citizenship in the liminal realm of a disrupted childhood and the years that follow. Simply put, read this book.&nbsp;Allen's beguiling and brilliant writing will leave you exhilarated."</p><p class="ql-align-justify">-Jo Ann Beard, author of <em>Festival Days</em></p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">"A snarl of honeybees in a parcel at the post office evokes a mother's long-ago rage; a medical insurance crisis arises when a sister gives birth; past loves, an old man who was kind; Boston, Iowa City, Hawaii, speculations of the afterlife.<em>The Deep Limitless Air</em> tells a life of successive revelation, evolving wisdom.&nbsp;Mary Allen's prose has the freshness of the most optimistic morning.&nbsp;I adore this book."</p><p class="ql-align-justify">-Honor Moore, author of <em>Our Revolution, A Mother and Daughter at Midcentury</em></p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">"Among the reasons I love <em>The Deep Limitless Air</em> is that its spirituality is so light-handed and matter-of-fact and barely distinguishable from the apprehension and appreciation of ordinary life, life both lived and recalled. Mary Allen writes about growing up with a rejecting mother, of lovers, partners, friends, and a procession of animals who summon her tender and respectful attention, of learning to bear the long silence of meditation and the joyful shout of the world. A beautiful, funny, warm, and heartbreaking book."</p><p class="ql-align-justify">-Peter Trachtenberg, author of <em>Another Insane Devotion, On the Love of Cats and Persons</em></p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">Mary Allen is the author of <em>The Rooms of Heaven</em>, a literary memoir published by Alfred A. Knopf and Vintage Books.</p><p class="ql-align-justify"><br></p><p><br></p>