c. vance retold his family's history abstractly rather than using the traditional memoir form. Somewhere in the process, the story infected words and the words became fable. Now, the author finds it difficult to remember if his grandfather really built bridges or something else, and in what way his father actually harvested land, and where his parents truly met, and how the world finally ended

c. vance, We: A Reimagined Family History, Jaded Ibis Press, 2011.


"A gorgeous, haunting portrait of the 'we' that lurks in every family.
In order to extract something beyond beautiful from ordinary words, c.vance retold his family's history abstractly rather than using the traditional memoir form. Somewhere in the process, the story infected words and the words became fable. Now, the author finds it difficult to remember if his grandfather really built bridges or something else - and in what way his father actually harvested land - and where his parents truly met - and how the world finally ended. In some places, the words succeeded in becoming something beautiful and true; in other places, the fable is more honest than anything that actually happened."

"In order to extract something beyond beautiful from ordinary words, c.vance retold his family's history abstractly rather than using the traditional memoir form. Somewhere in the process, the story infected words and the words became fable. Now, the author finds it difficult to remember if his grandfather really built bridges or something else – and in what way his father actually harvested land – and where his parents in fact met – and how the world truly ended. In some places, the words succeeded in becoming something beautiful and factual; in other places, the fable is more honest than anything that actually happened.
The miniature house of We is constructed of bamboo and might very well be from a child's nightmare. Set slightly awry on wheels, the house contains a surreal diorama that can be viewed through the front door. A porthole magnifies the book's miniaturized text and images stored in the "attic" and fed through the slotted roof for viewing."


"I was lucky enough to read the manuscript version of this upcoming book and was taken with c.vance's ability to weave a family history into an experimental writing style that made me feel a little awestruck. As a fellow writer, I admire his commitment to technique and the way he can often make the grotesque quite beautiful. The narrative is unlike anything I have read before, and there is poetry here, too, bellying up to each page to accost you with its subtle profundity." - Suzanne Burns

"Amazing and beautifully written! c.vance has a great talent for words and storytelling! Each page is its own story, beginning with a seemingly simple idea and carrying the reader into a world where the lines of reality are blurred...all the while transforming what we thought we knew of language and how the world should be read...making us all wish we lived in a story that was told so well." - wonderwoman at Amazon.com

c. vance, the alley flowers bloom for every drunk who pisses on them save for me, Throwback Books, 2008.


"A 32-page, perfect-bound collection of short stories and poems in the font of an Underwood No. 5."