Relationships. Clothes. Food. Haircuts. Little dogs. Cab rides. Sex. All of these things carry heavy meaning in the writing of Ivan E. Coyote. Her specialty, and ultimately her strength, lies in putting the simple, subtle interactions of daily life under a powerful microscope. 

Coyote’s sixth book is a collection of anecdotes pulled straight from her life and crafted into brief yet moving stories. The vignettes read as though they’ve been freshly torn from a wanderer’s notebook, where they were immediately jotted down so as not to lose the vibrancy of experience. The result is refreshing and tearfully real – Coyote has a gift for blending the tragic and comic in a way that renders a reader gobsmacked. 

The book looks at the complexities of sexuality and gender, but also examines the various and often unacknowledged levels of power and privilege that exist in the contemporary world. In stories that include such subjects as fictionalized accounts of run-ins with fans and foes, Coyote highlights the conflict that arises when an attempt to live an outspoken life abuts mainstream society’s “proceed with caution” ethos.

Coyote is a performer at heart, and a reader can mark the beats in the prose as it clips forward. The writing in Missed Her is direct yet lyrical, poetic yet unadorned, reaching simultaneously for the heart and the gut with brevity and power. Coyote is concerned with the kind of quotidian observations many of us never bother to make. In cataloguing them she emphasizes the loss experienced by those of us who fail to see the truth and beauty in the world.