Blue Violet, No. 87 by Ducker, Gaylen

Growing up, Alicia feels she has to lie all the time: to hide her relationship with a boy her family doesn't like, to guard her secrets and just to be, safely, herself. When she discovers her family has been keeping secrets of their own, she disappears hoping to heal. Now she's back, more than ten years later, ready to confront everyone face to face. Will she find happiness and peace within herself? Or maybe with someone she left behind a long time ago?

Gaylen Ducker is a former editor of Bon Appétit and 805 Living magazines in the United States. She was also a finalist for the 2021 Big Moose Prize from Black Lawrence Press. She lives in a canyon in Southern California with her husband, a physician, film and television medical consultant, and writer as well as Rothko, the most anxious dog in the known universe. She also has a son who lives in Seattle.