Karen Stockwell

Everyday Mysteries Karen Stockwell

What are "everyday mysteries"? In the context of this volume they are the things we all ponder: the nature of love, making sense of a violent world, how to nurture ourselves and our families. In solving the large and small mysteries we encounter every day, we are able to discover ourselves and the meaning of our lives. When Karen Stockwell wasn't making progress on her next novel, she decided to unearth the poems she began writing in the late 1990s to see if there were enough of them for a book. As she found printouts of them in crinkled manila envelopes and more in the folders on a vintage Macintosh computer, she remembered the thrill of reading before a live audience at weekly open mics. She was also reminded of the events that sparked her writing: failed relationships followed by a successful marriage late in life; her mother's death; trips to Australia, Turkey, and New Orleans; the satisfaction and fulfillment of writing itself. There were more poems in "Possibilities," a chapbook she published in 1998, and in her 2013 novel "Dreams of Darkness and Light." They are included within the eight themed sections of this book along with three new poems.