Out in the Bay: In 'Spell Heaven,' peers on the pier find connection
How do we find human connection and meaning in an increasingly isolated world? Author and poet Toni Mirosevich found peers on the Pacifica pier.On this week's Out in the Bay Queer Radio + Podcast, Mirosevich reads from her new book, "Spell Heaven and other stories." The collection, set in the fictional town of Seaview, reflects on getting "in with the out crowd" and other ways to find meaning and connection.Mirosevich dreamt up the pseudonym Seaview for the real town of Pacifica, just down the coast from San Francisco, and "Spell Heaven" mirrors her actual life.
Her earlier book, "Queer Streets," is about moving there with her wife 30 years ago, before Pacifica became a lesbian haven of sorts.The book's narrator, like her, is a retired creative writing professor looking for meaning: "I saw a sign on a post down by the sea one day.
It said 'I've lost something. I don't know what it is. Can you help me find it?'""And I thought, that's very true to who this narrator is," said Mirosevich.
Like many of us, especially in this COVID era, "she's lost some kind of meaning, some kind of connection."The title of the collection and one of its stories comes from a discarded note scrap Mirosevich found on the Pacifica pier, "obviously written by a child, because it looks like a kid's writing.
