English Emerita to Discuss First Published Book
The English Department will host a virtual talk with Priscilla Riggle, professor emerita of English, at 7 p.m. Sept. 30 via Zoom.
Riggle retired in 2023 after 27 years as an English faculty member at Truman. She published her first book, “In the Cellar of My Mind, There Are Peaches,” in June 2026. The memoir transports readers to 1970s rural Iowa where Riggle grew up. Linked essays map a world where a baby sister is more interesting than a moonwalk, Barbies live side by side with a little girl and a deceased great-grandmother keeps her lawn mowed and her root cellar well-stocked.
Since her retirement, Riggle now leads a writing group at her town library, writes with various local and online communities and maintains a Substack publishing platform, Aggressively Handmade. She enjoys being weightless in water, meeting new dogs and cats, anything in miniature, Zumba and general dance, as well as Mount St. Helens. She shares a household with her mother, Celia, and their 15-year-old cat, Moses.
Riggle retired in 2023 after 27 years as an English faculty member at Truman. She published her first book, “In the Cellar of My Mind, There Are Peaches,” in June 2026. The memoir transports readers to 1970s rural Iowa where Riggle grew up. Linked essays map a world where a baby sister is more interesting than a moonwalk, Barbies live side by side with a little girl and a deceased great-grandmother keeps her lawn mowed and her root cellar well-stocked.
Since her retirement, Riggle now leads a writing group at her town library, writes with various local and online communities and maintains a Substack publishing platform, Aggressively Handmade. She enjoys being weightless in water, meeting new dogs and cats, anything in miniature, Zumba and general dance, as well as Mount St. Helens. She shares a household with her mother, Celia, and their 15-year-old cat, Moses.
In her virtual chat, Riggle will present readings from her book and lead a question-and-answer session. Attendees can expect conversations about what it was like to write from fragmented childhood memories, how Riggle involved her mother and siblings as she crafted the private family stories included in her book, and much more.
