Sutton resident Garret Keizer, a writer and former teacher at Lake Region Union High School, has published his 10th book: an essay collection called Starting From Paterson. The volume, released June 16 by Eastover Press, examines how Keizer's upbringing in and around Paterson, N.J., shaped his adult interests in organized labor, religion, and marriage.
Keizer has lived with his wife, Kathy, in an 1832 farmhouse on a Sutton dirt road for more than 40 years. But he describes himself as a "New Jersey writer-in-exile" whose sensibilities remain tied to the working-class mill town. The essays all mention Kathy, whom he met as a teenager, and many draw on his childhood experiences, including his time in a Dutch Reformed church and his grandmother Florence's love of bus rides.
One essay examines a visit to the St. Johnsbury Price Chopper, where finding the chickpeas moved to a different aisle prompts reflections on capitalism and change. Keizer, a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine, has also written for The New Yorker, Lapham's Quarterly, and Mother Jones.
His 15 years teaching English at Lake Region Union High School provided material for two previous books and, he said, taught him about writing: "Anything that you want to know well, try to teach it to somebody else."
Originally reported by Seven Days.
Photo: Paulita Fysh via Unsplash. Photo is illustrative and not from the scene.
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