Diamond WIllow

Set in the fictional town of Old Fork, in interior Alaska, Diamond Willow tells the story of 12-year-old Willow, a dogmusher, and her lead dog, Roxy. The story is told in diamond-shaped poems in Willow’s voice, with prose sections in the voices of animal characters who have knowledge of the past and offer protection in times of danger.

A poem from the book:

If you are reading on a mobile device, please turn it to the side when you read this poem.

I
was
named
after a stick.
The way Mom tells it,
she couldn’t get Dad to agree
on any names: Ellen, after Grandma?
Sally after Dad’s great aunt in Michigan?
No, he wanted something modern, something
meaningful. It will come to us, Dad kept saying.
Let’s hope it comes before the baby learns to walk,
said Mom.  Always does, said Dad. That’s how they
argue, each knows what they want, but neither seems
to think it matters much who wins. Since Mom gives
in before Dad most of the time, Dad gets his way a lot.
He told me that just before I was born, he found a small
stand of diamond willow and brought home one stick.
That’s it! Let’s name our baby Diamond Willow!
Mom had to think about it for a few days.
I can see it now: They’re on the airplane
flying to Anchorage. Mom’s in labor,
she’ll agree to almost anything.
Okay, she says. So Dad puts
Diamond Willow on my
birth certificate, and
then Mom says,
We will call 
the baby
Willow.

Read the first 16 pages of Diamond Willow, find a discussion guide, reviews, and more on the Macmillan website.

Perceptive readers who have read The Braid might catch a glimpse of Jeannie on the cover and in the pages of Diamond Willow, where she appears as a spruce hen named Jean.

As I was imagining Old Fork, I remembered the three years I lived in Telida, Alaska, and the friends I met there.