Laura van den Berg is the author of the story collections
What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us
, a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection, and
The Isle of Youth
, which won the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and The Bard Fiction Prize. Her first novel,
Find Me
, is out from FSG in February. She is currently a Writer-in-Residence at Bard College.
I blame the flight to Ogdensburg. Nothing disastrous happened on the flight itself, but something disastrous definitely happened inside me. Before Ogdensburg, I was a champion flyer. My parents were travelers, for work and for pleasure, and as a small child, I flew with them to London, Vienna, Paris. I can remember peeling back the warm tin foil on meal trays, the different foods tucked into their little compartments, as though made for a child.
