The Wet Collection: A Field Guide to Iridescence and Memory Book

"If a museum preserves things in part, Tevis reimagines them whole. . . . Sheer entertainment in the richest sense of the word."
—ORION

"These linked prose pieces, arranged like specimens in a cabinet of curiosities, are concerned with acts of making—the construction of works of art, of history, of interpretation—and their relationship to the natural world. Tevis turns the concept of 'nature writing' on its ear, bringing to her studies of the objects and scenes in her wunderkammer a fresh and surprising eye and a wide range of reference. Women's history, outsider art, geology, the Bible, posing in a beaver suit in a state park; everything fits in this delightful and deeply satisfying book."
—MARK DOTY, author of Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems

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 outward journeys complicated by an inward longing for home, The Wet Collection follows Tevis through several adventures that coalesce into a narrative imbued with the light of Tevis's Southern upbringing.

Written with a poet's lyricism, a scientist's precision, and a theologian's understanding of the world as it shifts around us, The Wet Collection is the exciting debut of a distinctive voice.

Formerly a park ranger, factory worker, and seller of cemetery plots, Joni Tevis currently teaches literature and creative writing at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.

Cover design by Christian Fuenfhausen.
Cover art: Untitled (Pharmacy), 1943, by Joseph Cornell.