When the desert unfolds
It is not in every landscape that one searches for God. But in the terrible, terrible beauty of desert mountains where roadside shrines bunch together like wild rose bushes, we sit on Joy’s porch talking about heaven and loss, drought and wind. She sighs, “If heaven is no better than this, I’m o.k.” Her flinty […]
A Loss So Exquisite
(the old cowboy finds it uncomfortable to sit in a chair) and when he walks, his limbs form an exquisite denim wishbone. On horseback, he has built his house a thousand times over – in the valley, on the mesa, cast out in the middle of desert sand – he is marooned among stretches of […]
Is a passport still a winning ticket?
I type “British embassy + Washington, D.C.” into the Google search function of my computer. With one click, I am immediately thrust into a world of immigration, visas, employment regulations, and tips for foreign travelers. “Welcome to the Consular and Passport Services section of the website. In this section, you will find information about applying […]
Human equivalent of GMT
Under the shadow of the domed Greenwich telescopes, I lean over a thin, black line bordered with twinkling red lights, the geographical collision I have longed to see for years. When I was a child, I ardently scoured my grandmother’s Suffolk garden for evidence, convinced that the slender furrow snaking through the carrots and runner […]
Moving up a generation
After the private funeral, one of the attendants assigned to manage my mother’s services leads me into the room set aside for the visitation. Trays of hand-cut sandwiches, bowls of marigold yellow potato salad, and a selection of sugar cookies arranged in buffet-style line white linen-covered table. Strong coffee brews. Classical music pipes into the […]
Death keeps you busy
I climb the stairs and duck under the canopy-shielded entrance. The plum-colored tarp bends and twists from the force of the thirty-mile an hour wind. With effort, I heave the glass door open, lodging it with my elbow until I manage to scuttle into the foyer. I step out of the subzero temperatures. Only 8:30 […]
Plane’s arc, a definition since childhood
I sit by the airplane window, staring into a pool of shifting darkness. My mother sleeps but not soundly. The plane passes through a bank of clouds like a ghost walking through walls. A few passengers, unable to sleep, turn page after fitful page under miniature spotlights. The disembodied snoring of one wakes another. A […]
Meet ANNA SOCHOCKY
My work has appeared in the Waterstone Literary Journal and has received Honorable Mentions in the New Millennium Writings and Fourth Genre Journals and third prize in the Larry Turner Award for Nonfiction.
I have been awarded Creative Nonfiction Mentorships with the SASE Nonfiction Mentorship Program and the Loft Literary Center, received residencies with Norcroft: A Writing Retreat for Women and the Room of Her Own Foundation.
I am a graduate of the Hamline Graduate of Liberal Studies program and the recipient of the Outstanding Creative Thesis Award. Learn more about me…
For information about my story, for interviews, and other inquiries, please contact me.