Route
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| Cover design by Janyce Denise Glasper and Robert Woods. |
route
/ro͞ot,rout/verbsend or direct along a specified course.nouna way or course taken in getting from a starting point to a destination
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| Valves, pen, ink, and marker, 2023. |
An illustrated debut novel partially inspired by real-life events, using a date format as opposed to chapters, transforms Dayton, Ohio into the dreary city of Dandelion— meaning a weed and/or flower. This epistolary prose intimately reveals the heavy passages of time told through a trauma survivor’s artistic gaze on/off the bus trolleys.
Route synopsis: “Set in fictional Dandelion, Ohio and split in six parts of the heart, Route is an evocative coming of age story centering the complex dialogue between a frequent passenger and an attached bus driver. Josephine Benson, a shy, inexperienced artist and avid reader raised to believe that men are big bad wolves, realizes that even the most devout soul needs human connection. Wes Jenkins, a pragmatic former Marine, provides stimulating pleasures in their journeys and learns other perspectives through visitors who seek him for therapeutic purposes. With vulnerable moments of warmth, humor, sensuality, maturity, and joy, two guarded secret keepers transition from bus to bus, from past to present, discovering the spectrums of goodness together.”
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