Here’s a piece I published a few years back: “For a Teenage Girl Embarking Upon a Weeklong Carnival Cruise with Her Parents.”
It’s included in the anthology A BOOK OF UNCOMMON PRAYER (Outpost19, Matthew Vollmer, ed.), a collection of poetry and prose pieces modeled (very loosely) after the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, the Christian prayer book. The contributors are a terrific roster of contemporary authors, including Rick Moody, Clyde Edgerton, Dawn Raffel, J. Robert Lennon, Catherine Lacey, Wendy Brenner, Joseph Salvatore, and, of course, me.
My story’s about a rape at sea–which could be timely now. It begins:
“O most omniscient God our Father, Who art everywhere, even upon the high seas, look with mercy upon fifteen-year-old Deena Truitt as she sets sail with her parents on a week-long cruise on the Carnival Breeze, departing from Miami, Florida in August with three ports of call in the exotic Caribbean and an all-inclusive holiday package featuring a variety of exciting onboard entertainment, non-stop luxury dining, fun-filled youth programs, whale and dolphin viewing, and much, much more . . .”
More about A BOOK OF UNCOMMON PRAYER here at Outpost19.
