The essays in Dowsing and Science touch points on the map, including Texarkana, Chicago, and Ocean City, Maryland, with stops in Latin America and Aurora, Illinois. The collection’s mental range extends even farther, questioning the use of common phrases such as “the real world,” suggesting how Romanian history stands in for the human condition at large, and making a case for the survival value of esthetics. While several selections represent variations on the short memoirs known as the personal essay, most are examples of the “impersonal essay,” meditating on and engaging with a world larger than any writer’s psyche.
About the Author
J.D. SMITH has published two collections of poetry and an edited anthology as well as one children’s book, and he has received a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His essays, fiction, poetry, and reviews have appeared in publications throughout the United States and in several other countries. Smith’s one-act play Dig, optioned for film, was produced in London in 2010. A graduate of the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, he currently lives in Washington, D.C., where he is at work on projects in several genres, including a second essay collection.