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Beautiful essays by Fanny Howe, a poet praised for her �private quest through the metaphysical universe . . . the results are startling and honest� (The New York Times Book Review) Fanny Howe�s richly contemplative The Winter Sun is a collection of essays on childhood, language, and meaning by one of America�s most original contemporary poets. Through a collage of reflections on people, places, and times that have been part of her life, Howe shows the origins and requirements of �a vocation that has no name.� She finds proof of this in the lives of others�Jacques Lusseyran, who, though blind, wrote about his inner vision, surviving inside a concentration camp during World War II; the Scottish nun Sara Grant and Abb� Dubois, both of whom lived extensively in India where their vocation led them; the English novelists Antonia White and Emily Bront�; and the fifth-century philosopher and poet Bharthari. With interludes referring to her own place and situation, Howe makes this book into a Progress rather than a memoir. The Winter Sun displays the same power as found in her highly praised collection of essays, The Wedding Dress, a book described by James Carroll as an �unflinching but exhilarating look at real religion, the American desolation, a woman�s life, and, always, the redemption of literature.�