Clare B. Dunkle

About Clare B. Dunkle

The European Landscape

I grew up in a Western state, where rainfall is infrequent and violent and where the countryside is usually decorated in hues of tan and sage green. My hometown wasn't settled until after the Civil War, so the oldest structures in our area are from the late 1800's. If an author is supposed to write about what she knows, I would have had to limit my descriptions to strip malls, tornadoes and rolling pastureland.

But my family and I have spent ten of the last fifteen years in Europe, where I've grown accustomed to white threads of mist in the late afternoon, gentle showers, old stone buildings, towering trees, lavender clouds, and green-green-green everywhere I look. The influence of Europe on my manuscripts is as pervasive as morning fog. I've put together this collection of photographs to share with you readers some of the sights that have had an impact on my thinking and prose.

Heidelberg, Germany