You Are Here: A Memoir of Arrival

Since Wesley Gibson’s death in December 2016, Blackbird has contemplated ways to ensure his literary voice maintains a presence in the world. With that end in mind, we are in the process of reproducing his book, You Are Here: A Memoir of Arrival, which was published in 2004 by Back Bay Books, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. Hailed at the time by Mary Gaitskill as “dark and sparkling, wonderfully intelligent, flip, and deeply felt,” You Are Here provides an excellent vehicle for honoring Gibson’s many strengths as a writer and his generosity of spirit as a friend. All excerpts appear with the permission of his family and publisher.

Installment 1, v17n1: [That second day, I knew something was wrong.]
Installment 2, v18n1: [I never got that job. I overslept.]
Installment 3, v18n2: [Telemarketing. It has that ring to it . . .]
Installment 4, v19n1: [One afternoon . . . I heard these small cries for help.]
Installment 5, v19n2: [. . . quiet, but it didn’t feel like anybody was dead.]
Installment 6, v20n1: [I thanked them for listening—it couldn’t have been easy . . .]
Installment 7, v20n2: [Saturday night, about 7:00. I was sitting in the armchair . . .]
Installment 8, v21n1: [. . . Becky was already asleep on the foldout couch. . . .]
Installment 9, v21n2: [. . . the Upper West Side in the midnineties . . .]