"My stories tend to stem from serendipity. This time Tracing Iris grew out of three incidents."

The first of these was a visit I took to Mesa Verde, Colorado, to see the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi - a vibrant culture who lived for hundreds of years in the sophisticated dwellings sculpted into the top of the 9000-foot mesa. What fascinated me most about the Anasazi is that suddenly, within a span of 100 years, they vanished and, although theories abound, there is no definitive answer to the question of their disappearance.

Then I came across a magazine article about adopted children who as adults go searching for their abandoning mothers. I began to wonder about the lasting effects of this abandonment, and through research, found that abandoned children have two typical adaptive mechanisms: they become so good no one will ever abandon them again; or they become so bad no one will ever love them so they never need to worry about being abandoned again.

I went back to research the Anasazi. What were their adaptive mechanisms? From the Anasazi, I continued to research cultures who had become extinct, and ones who had managed to survive extreme deprivations, due to their ability to adapt.

The third incident: On the Oregon coast, a fierce storm uncovered a spectral forest of stumps that had been buried in sand for 700 years. This evoked the burial of memories, and how through circumstance, they can surface.

Thus, a story began to emerge: Kate, a young woman abandoned by her mother--named Iris--in her early childhood, is forced home by her step-mother's death, to confront her father and ultimately her own memories.

Kate is a social anthropologist obsessed with disappearing peoples. A part-time lecturer on cruise ships, she examines and re-tells stories of cultures either extinct or on the verge of extinction, trying to understand both her mother's disappearance, and her own reaction/adaptation to that abandonment.

As a result, she embarks on a search for her mother, using anthropological methods to reconstruct her mother's life.

So Tracing Iris explores the effects of parental abandonment.
There are two basic premises.

When faced with extreme deprivations, we are capable of behaviour that we don't normally associate with ourselves.The life template we use as adults is based on our perception of our past.

Born in Italy, Genni Gunn-yet another UBC Creative Writing grad, class of '84-came to B.C. in 1960. A translator and teacher, she was nominated for the 1990 Commonwealth Prize and has had work in the Journey Prize Anthology. She toured extensively as a professional rock musician before opting for the tenuous respectability of authordom. 1-55192-486-2

[BCBW Autumn 2001]