Show Her a Flower, a Bird, a Shadow

Winner of the Foreword Indies Book of the Year in Literary Fiction (2017). In this striking debut of vivid characters and piercing situations, nothing is too insignificant for Pursell's imagination--a wren on a branch, a hole in a sock, ginger tea— and nothing too dangerous— a girl hit by a stone, a mother and daughter struggling, a lip plump with blood. Intense insights are captured in superb concentrations of prose, with lyricism and flashes of brilliant detail applied to the small wonders of the world.

Peg Alford Pursell is the author of A GIRL GOES INTO THE FOREST (Dzanc Books, 2019), and SHOW HER A FLOWER, A BIRD, A SHADOW, the Foreword INDIES 2017 Book of the Year for Literary Fiction. She is the founder and director of WTAW Press and of Why There Are Words. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. She lives in Santa Rosa, CA.