A stunning, intricate collection of forty lyric essays juxtaposing natural history, ancient texts, folk heroes, and found objects.Using such models as Joseph Cornell's box constructions, crazy quilts, and specimen displays, Joni Tevis places fragments in relationship to each other in order to puzzle out lost histories, particularly those of women. Navigating the peril and excitement of an outward journey complicated by an inward longing for home, The Wet Collec...

This "magnificently compelling" essay collection explores obsession, anxiety, and Existential dread from the Book of Revelation to the Liberace Museum ( Minneapolis Star Tribune).The sermons of Joni Tevis' youth filled her with dread, a sense "that an even worse story—one you hadn't read yet—could likewise come true." In this revelatory collection, she reckons with her childhood fears by exploring the uniquely American fascination with apocalypse. From a ha...