Dorothy Rice is an author, editor and writing workshop facilitator. A San Francisco native, she lives in Sacramento, California. After raising five children and retiring from a career in environmental protection, she earned an MFA in Creative Writing at 60. Her first book, The Reluctant Artist, an art book/memoir, was published by Shanti Arts in October 2015. Her essays are in journals including Proximity, the Rumpus and Longridge Review. An essay about her mother’s descent into Alzheimer’s was awarded second place in the 2018 Kalanithi Awards (honoring Paul Kalanithi, author of When Breath Becomes Air).
Forty years ago I spent a year in Madrid, in a rented studio apartment on the sixth floor of a narrow brick apartment building on bustling Calle de la Princesa. One room that came fully-furnished with two single beds which we lashed together with twine—thin, tick mattresses on metal frames, like the institutional beds…
