Azure, A. (2011). Along came a spider. Bowman Books Native New England Authors Series. Greenfield Center, NY: Greenfield Review Press.
Along Came a Spider is an account of a search for self-knowledge that evolves into a search for community. Her guide, Grandmother Spider, has the first word in every chapter, goading Alice to write her story. Her journey in time and place is spiritual as much geographic, and her spirituality spans Native American tradition to C.S. Lewis.
Azure carries the reader right along on her Grandmother Spider’s back, during this journey to find her Native place within the cloaked web of Canadian genealogy and indigenous heritage. The spider, who serves as her reader’s guide, adds the most brilliant filaments to this truthful tale of love, loss, mistakes, and miracles, leading to wholeness and understanding.
Permission granted to use book cover image, Along came a spider.(2011) by artist Benjamin Harjo, Jr. © Bowman Books
From back cover: "This is a vital contribution to contemporary Native American literature. Already highly regarded for her poetry, Alice Azure proves to be a captivating storyteller, weaving together personal narrative, her own voracious reading and research, and vivid re-imaginings of the people—and spirits--who led her back to her Mi’kmaq heritage." Siobhan Senier, Associate Professor, English University of New Hampshire
ISBN 1458372065, 9781458372062