Unraveling Identity and Home: Kathryn Nuernberger’s ‘Held’ Challenges What It Means to Belong

Unraveling Identity and Home: Kathryn Nuernberger’s ‘Held’ Challenges What It Means to Belong

Reviewed by Lara Lillibridge

cover of Held cover Essays in Belonging by Kathryn Nuernberger; title in cursive handwriting with abstract sketch of alligator with bird in its mouthI was first captivated by Kathryn Nuernberger’s smart, lyrical prose when I read The Witch of Eye. I loved how she connected history to the present, and made me think of things through a different lens. Her latest book, Held: Essays in Belonging (Sarabande Books; 2025), is even richer in connecting the personal to the universal.

“I am out here in the gray light of morning, on my hands and knees in the backyard weeds, trying to hold a leaf beneath my pocket microscope, because I think maybe there is something I can understand about losing and holding on.”

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