A Year in Reading: Anne K. Yoder

Fate. It’s shown its force and ferocity of late. I’ve been thinking about this and catastrophe theory, with some scientific lassitude in its application, of course, when considering how it relates to our lives—collectively and individually—over these past seemingly endless twenty-some months. Catastrophe theory distilled articulates how a system endures change in a foreseeable way until it reaches a threshold where the unexpected intervenes. Those of us who were lucky enough to be able to isolate during the pandemic spent large swaths of time in our common spaces, with our common/lawful spouses, reflecting on our very specific lives. It’s an inordinate amount of time to incubate. Where does that threshold lie?

But, fate. Mid-summer I stopped by a free little library in my neighborhood that held a first edition of ’s first book of stories, . What a prize. I adore Williams’s stories, her