From Old Notebooks

Poetry. Cross-Genre. FROM OLD NOTEBOOKS is a memoir, a novel, a poem, an essay--a self-styled "memoivel"--which exemplifies how love of language and literature enriches our lives, and explores, often with great humor, the many pitfalls confronting a young writer and father on his journey to maturity. Each entry in FROM OLD NOTEBOOKS is literally that--an idea written in a writer’s draftbook. Within this unconventional format, Lavender-Smith is able to tell us the story of his life while ruminating on subjects ranging from fatherhood to philosophy, art, football, music, politics, TV, teaching, fear of death, and everything in between. In the process, Lavender-Smith lays bare the day-to-day trials and tribulations of an artist confronted by the pressures of culture, family, writing, and, simply, being. Witty, original, poignant and deeply insightful, FROM OLD NOTEBOOKS is a coming-of-age story, an ode to writing and reading, to living and loving--a celebration of "human thought in all its glory, all its mundanity."