Boot Language: A Memoir

Written by Vanya Erickson

Narrated by Nicol Zanzarella

In order to survive her childhood, Vanya Erickson was forced to become fluent in two languages: her Christian Scientist mother’s honeyed versions of the truth and her rancher father’s hard-as-the-scrape-of-his-bootheels words, which stung like the back of his hand.

From the outside, Vanya’s childhood of riding horses with her father in the solitude of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and attending flamboyant operas with her mother in the city looked idyllic. But life for Vanya was more about learning to gauge and survive her parents’ unpredictable actions—from being left to lie in her own blood-soaked diaper while her Christian Scientist mother prayed, refusing to get medical help, to watching her father writhe on his bed in the detox ward, his hands and feet tethered with leather straps.

Vanya survived the only way she knew how: by immersing herself in the beauty and solitude of the wilderness around her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vanya Erickson
• Release date: Aug 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781624615665

Vanya Erickson

Vanya Erickson used to photograph and haul horses for a living. For the last twenty-five years she has been mentoring teachers while teaching writing and public speaking in the oldest continuously used schoolhouse in California. She loves hiking the High Sierras and coastal redwood forests, as well as dramatically reading aloud to children—especially her granddaughter and grandniece. Erickson holds a BA in comparative literature and a teaching credential from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Her essays have appeared in a dozen literary journals and anthologies, and in the book The Magic of Memoir. Find out more about her at www.vanyaerickson.com.