No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.
—Virginia Woolf
In the Book Review accompanying a piece
about a new novel, a familiar-looking
long-faced flapper-era woman smiles obliquely
from a wicker chair and I think: what’s
Great Aunt Doodie of Staten Island doing
in these literary precincts? It turned out to be
Virginia Woolf wearing Doodie’s dowdy ‘do,
but also a bold floral-print dress and a necklace
wrapped loosely around her neck and hanging
as long as her torso. Great Aunt Doodie’s creative
output consisted of pastel woolen booties
with big pom poms on the ends of the ties,
mailed to my sister and me for Hanukah.
My feet sweat just thinking of them.
Michele Herman’s novel, Save the Village, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Prize, and she’s published two chapbooks: Victory Boulevard and Just Another Jack. She’s the recipient of multiple writing awards, including the 2024 Subnivean Journal’s Fiction Prize and the 2018 Best Column Award from the New York Press Association. Her work has appeared in recent issues of Carve, Ploughshares, The Hudson Review, The Sun, LitHub and other journals. She’s a developmental editor and a devoted teacher at The Writers Studio.