Skip to content

Search Results for: hiking underground

Smiley 1

The Breathing World: An Interview with Amy Smiley, author of Hiking Underground

Amy Smiley, LCSW, Ph.D., lives in New York City where she maintains a private psychotherapy practice and has a family. She is a writer of fiction and essays which have appeared in journals in France and the United States. She also creates paperjams—visual poems derived from daily headlines and photographs. A former professor of French literature at the Johns Hopkins University (and author of a full-length study of the poetics of the earth in the writing of Louis Aragon, published by Honore Champion), Amy has also taught classes related to psychoanalysis and social work at New York University.

Read More »
Smiley Cover Project front jpg

Hiking Underground, by Amy Smiley

Nothing happens, and everything happens, in this seemingly quiet novel where Amy Smiley takes us deep into the emotional bond between three people—a mother, her son, and his babysitter—and follows each of them through a period of growth, from one spring to the next, until they are able to step out into the world more freely, with nature as their guide.

With its subtle focus on the inner life, Amy Smiley’s prose conveys the beneficial power of reverie, teaching us that we need more of it, to help us each find meaning in our lives. Written under the star of motherhood, Hiking Underground is an exquisite meditation on the interplay of nurture, connection, and creativity.

Read More »