"Ann Alejandro, who lived all her life on a ranch in Uvalde, Texas, was a prolific writer with breathtaking natural talent. Though she lived for more than thirty years with chronic pain caused by fibromyalgia and other, mostly undiagnosed, illnesses, shewrote thousands of pages of poems, essays, and other creative works, the vast majority of it unpublished until now. Alejandro was also known for her lengthy letters, many written to her mother, who lived in the same town. Here in I Know About a Thousand Things, editors Naomi Shihab Nye and Marion Winik have selected the very best of Alejandro's writing-vignettes, anecdotes, rants, and more. In fact, the opening poem in this collection, "I Know a Thinger Two," was assembled by Nye, using lines from the many letters and emails she had received from Alejandro over the years. This collection, with commentary by Winik and Nye, is drawn from Alejandro's vast creative output. It brings a measure of recognition to a woman who, though she labored in what might beseen as faithful obscurity, left behind a body of essays, letters, and poetry deserving of the most serious contemplation and appreciation. I Know About a Thousand Things: The Writings of Ann Alejandro of Uvalde, Texas will delight and enrich readers foryears to come"--
Struggling for 30 years with chronic illness at her ranch outside Uvalde, Texas, Ann Alejandro was a writer of transporting natural talent and prolificity. Though she would have loved to be widely read and appreciated, she was too modest to scale the walls of the publishing world. Thus her chosen form was the letter and her audience close friends and family, including the poet Naomi Nye and the essayist Marion Winik. For decades, her often lengthy missives continued to delight her correspondents, blending observation, storytelling, humor, praise, and accounts of her deep attachment to the land and animals that surrounded her in the rural Southwest.
Before Ann's death in 2019 at the age of 64, Naomi and Marion promised her they would pull together a book from thousands of pages left in their care. They selected the very best of Ann Alejandro, added commentary, and organized the material into chapters with titles like Faith, Motherhood, Land, Snakes, Pain, and Love.
I Know About a Thousand Things: The Writings of Ann Alejandro of Uvalde, Texas is an extraordinary collection of writing put together by two longtime literary friends in tribute to a third. It includes an introduction by Nye and and an afterword by Winik, as well as a photo gallery of Ann's life. It will delight and enrich readers for years to come.
