The timeless exchange of advice and friendship between two of our greatest literary talents "Dear Leslie: Of course I can't know whether or not the world looks strange to God. But sometimes it looks strange to me."Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright met only twice. First, briefly, in 1975, at a writers' conference in Michigan. Their cor?respondence began three years later, after Wright wrote to Silko praising her book" Ceremony." The letters began formally, and then each writer gradually opened to the other, sharing his or her life, work, and struggles. The second meeting between the two writers came in a hospital room, as Wright lay dying of cancer. "The New York Times" wrote something of Wright that applies to both writers--of qualities that this exchange of letters makes evident: "Our age desperately needs his vision of brotherly love, his transcendent sense of nature, the clarity of his courageous voice." Leslie Marmon Silko's books include "Ceremony," "Almanac of the Dead," "Storyteller," and "Gardens in the Dunes." She is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Grant, among numerous other awards and fellowships. She lives in Tucson, Arizona." " James Wright was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio. He was well known for his translations of Vallejo, Trakl, and Neruda, as well as for his poems about the Midwest. His Collected Poems won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972. He died in 1980, at the age of 52. Anne Wright is the widow of James Wright. She lives in New York. Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright met only twice. Their first encounter was brief, at a writers conference in Michigan. Their correspondence began three years later, after Wright wrote to Silko praising her book "Ceremony." The letters began formally, and then each writer gradually opened to the other, sharing his or her life, work, and struggles. The second meeting between the two writers came in a hospital room, as James Wright lay dying of cancer. This edition includes a new introduction by James Wright's widow, Anne, and a new afterword by Joy Harjo. "Like finely crafted lace kept as a story of beauty and struggle and passed between generations, these letters posses a liquid and elegant power. We admire the knit of soul. We recognize the struggle to be artists in the midst of the daily challenges of living."--Joy Harjo, from her introduction