Only the Dance: Essays on Time and Memory

Using the words of others as her wellspring, Kitchen takes us on excursions in time, self, and literature to examine the interconnectiveness of past, present, and future pieces of her life. Longer essays form the vertical threads of Kitchen's autobiographical tapestry, reflecting the shape of her identity as daughter, student, wife, teacher, and finally, well-known writer/editor/reviewer. Her quest defies chronology as she traverses a geography of memories in upstate New York, Brazil, New England, Wyoming, and Washington state. Shorter essays, laden with personal and political history, trace the horizontal threads of a three-week journey through Scotland, England, and Wales. Extending the spirit of Virginia Woolf and of philosopher Henri Bergson, Kitchen's travels take the reader to destinations where the dimensions of life intersect: past and present, political and personal, literary and literal.