Dickinson’s use offlash fiction to tell the story is simply brilliant, as are the images and metaphors that populate this collection. Big-Headed Anna suffers the indignity and violence of rape, unable to see her attacker. And when she gives birth, her child stolen from her, carried away her only comfort is knowing the child has a normal head. Dickinson has weaved these stories together as a master quilter, each strand interwoven, each resulting image full of color. The stories take place between 1900 and 1933, a harsh time in America. Although dreamlike in its presentation the supporting characters are developed with words and images reflecting a beauty and realism to this work. Yet like a master quilter, Dickinson has created a body of work in this collection always with an underlying love for its central character.

—g emil reutter, North of Oxford

Stephanie Dickinson has created a mythic character in Big-Headed Anna, one who suffers loss and abuse yet won’t concede. For all her sufferings, she accepts her being, her special presence in this world, repeating the assertion of all that she is through “I am” again and again. Dickinson’s exceptional gift for inventive language and imagery makes each episode a unique reality that elevates Anna’s existence into a series of larger than life phenomena.

—Walter Cummin

This wonderful book of yours, the weight of each and every sentence, the ability you have to transcend this early 20th century past into the present by offering up its aromas, its occupations, its languages, its abuses and careless almost thoughtless deaths, along with all its religious or secular beliefs is really extraordinary. I kept shaking my head upon closing the book whenever I was too overwhelmed with the way you portrayed the reality of each moment. Its resemblance to just as guilty a presence in human beings now, does not go unnoticed. The entire part about her rape, the baby, the baby taken and her almost supernatural search through fields rather than roads for her baby girl was quite moving. Her perseverance was second to none. More than that, there isn't, well there can't be, anyone else on Earth writing with such consistent intensity. I've not had the ultimate pleasure of reading anything that comes close. Not only very powerful but the kind of writing that sticks in one's head and creates a different standard. I can't thank you enough for it!

—Paul B. Roth, editor & publisher, The Bitter Oleander Press

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Read an excerpt from Big-Headed Anna