Transference. Essays by Allison Gruber. Paperback. 216 pages. February 22, 2022. ISBN 9781948800464.

Transference follows author Allison Gruber’s journey throughout a decade, beginning with the end of her breast cancer treatment in Milwaukee and ending with her recurrent, stage IV diagnosis in Arizona. This collection of creative nonfiction explores illness and mortality but also delves into relationships teachers form with students, what it means to recreate one’s home, and the experience of falling in love—with a person, with a profession, with a place. Blending humor with heartbreak, Transference broaches cancer, high art, gun violence, racism, homophobia, and more as recent history is exposed in the absurd and everyday-extraordinary. These essays emphasize how and why we need each other as well as the ways in which we are also deeply alone in our experiences.