"The voice in these prose essays is window-pane clear, but with the power of sun through a magnifying glass. . . . This book is a treasurehouse."—Maxine Kumin

Lyrical, affecting, and blended with intelligent speculation on national history and literary legacy, Distance and Directions contains tender and lucidly-detailed homages to Fred Astaire's hands, Kitchen's aging father, the color blue and familiar and dreamed-about places.

Judith Kitchen has also written Only the Distance: Essays on Time and Memory, and has been the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, Anhinga Prize in Poetry, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches at SUNY-Brockport.