The Perpetual Motion Machine

WINNER 2017 RED HEN PRESS NONFICTION AWARD SHORTLISTED 2018 AMERICAN BEST BOOK, AUTOBIOGRAPHY SHORTLISTED 2019 RUBERY INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD, NONFICTION Inspired by a brothers high school science projecta perpetual motion machine that could save the world The Perpetual Motion Machine is a memoir in essays that attempts to save a sibling by depicting the visceral pain that accompanies longing for some past impossibility. The collection has been a science project in its study of memory, in the calculation and plotting of the moments that make up a childhood. The preparation has been in the field in that it is built upon the gathering of lived experience; the evidence is photo albums, family interviews, and anecdotes from friends. The project has been one giant experimentto see if they can all make it out alive.