Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. In a sensitive tribute to the dominating learning experience of our childhood, MY OWN ALPHABET uses each letter of the alphabet to mark Hawkins's personal vision of what makes the world go round: A is for Attitude and Aging; D is for Death and Dying and Domestic Nirvana; H is for Heartbreak. Reminiscent of Russell Baker's stories of the South, these full-bellied essays, anecdotes, theatrical monologues, and stories overflow in a cornucopia of rich revelations, experiences, and places that thoroughly entertain the reader in a witty, provocative, and poignant story-telling style.

Bobbie Louise Hawkins was raised in West Texas, studied art in London (the Slade) and taught in British Honduras. She attended University in Tokyo (Jochi Dai Gaku), while acting on the stage and radio. She has published fifteen books of prose and poetry, including Bijoux (Fafalla Press, 2006), The Sanguine Breast of Margaret (North and South Press, London, 1992), My Own Alphabet (Coffee House Press, 1989), and Own Your Own Body (Black Sparrow Press, 1973). She has received a fellowship in literature from the National Endowment for the Arts and has been teaching at the Jack Kerouac School for Disembodied Poetics, in Boulder, Colorado, since 1987.