Elise Blackwell is the author of five novels, most recently The Lower Quarter. Her short prose has appeared in Witness, Brick, The Collagist, New Flash Fiction Review, and other publications. Her work has been named to several best-of-the-year lists, translated into multiple languages, adapted for the stage, and served as inspiration for a Decemberists' song. She lives in the American South.
The passion with which she took to the house and garden surprised him. She told him her grandmother taught her to cook when she was a girl. She’d just been waiting for a kitchen. She cooked hard, rolling pastry,...