“Spirography is the rare, wonderful book: as alive with its own weathers as the lake around which Stoddard's childhood life revolves. An elegy to a father lost to cancer; a childhood-cancer-survival memoir that refuses any easy definition of survival; a story of gender and sexuality, of water skiing and downhill skiing, of Michigan and the West, and what it means to be family, this is a radiant, restless search for answers and overlaps, all traced with such grace and intellectual and emotional power. I couldn't put it down.” —Alexandra Teague, author of Spinning Tea Cups: A Mythical American Memoir

“Spirography is a moving love story, richly layered: a daughter's love for their father spirals outward to include family, friends, lovers, a daughter of their own, and love for place, too—from one small lake in Michigan to the Great Lakes generally to mountains in Colorado and Washington. Cara Stoddard is a generous narrator, ever in motion—skiing, skating, hiking, swimming, boating—with a curious mind, ever searching, questioning. Their voice brims with wisdom and grace and warmth most of all, welcoming the reader at every turn.” —Ana Maria Spagna, author of Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going and Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter's Civil Rights Journey

“Stoddard's stunning debut memoir, Spirography, strands together their and their father's cancers, his death, and their attempts to rebuild their world. It is written the way herons peer into dark lakes: unflinchingly gazing 'beneath the surface all the way down to the bottom.'“ —Sean Prentiss, author of Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave

“This elegant memoir explores the loss of a father and the rearing of a daughter through the shifting lenses of place and memory.” —Mary Clearman Blew, author of Think of Horses