What Falls Away is Always

edited by
Katharine Haake &
Gail Wronsky

In 2019, writers from Los Angeles' Glass Table Collective, all over 60, gathered at AWP Portland to take up the idea of late-stage writing. What is it like to grow old as a writer, to face both the page and one's final years in the same breath? Then the pandemic came. By turns searing, poignant, and downright funny, What Falls Away is Always brings together more than thirty writers of both prose and poetry to reflect on the experiences of aging and writing they share, along with the possibly more daunting question—what next?
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"I am always looking for advice on how to live the dwindling remainder of my days and how to write despite this awareness. This volume of short essays (averaging four pages each) seemed exactly what I needed. I would learn strategies for how to thrive as an aging writer, I supposed. But that's not exactly what happened...I turned to this collection for wisdom...What I found instead was comfort: comfort in the company of writers who go before me."
— Jessica Goodyear's review in Barrelhouse Magazine

"Taking its cue from Theodore Roethke's sublime, indelible villanelle, 'The Waking,' this is an eclectic and wise compendium of writers addressing the richness and challenges of embracing aging, leave-taking, and the majestic journey toward death. Some of these testimonial essays are so tell-true and bracing, it's exhilirating. Diane Seuss, one of America's best and liveliest contemporary poets insists: "Death is not an artificial boundary. It's as as dumb and real as Trump's wall. It's as dumb and real as artificial flowers." These way-showing, articulate elders bear candid witness to the late-in-life craving for mundane joy and 'mere existence' alongside rallying impulses to attempt their best, most daring work yet. An invigorating and inspiring book!" -— Cyrus Cassells

"Theodore Roethke, whose words give this anthology its title, once wrote 'There are times when reality comes closer,' and in these meditations death comes close, oh so close, to the reader. The
authors here entertain pressing questions: What ghosts should we keep around, and which let go? How do we talk to Death? Do we invite and her accept her into the commotion of life? Must we take inventory of our past accomplishments? How do we proceed with artistic endeavors in old age? Is there such a thing as a 'late style'? Be consoles, and surprised, as you listen in to these courageous voices." — Molly Bendall