COLLECTED WORKS

OF BOBBIE CALHOUN

Storied Stuff

Show and Tell for Grownups: Volume I

A diary. Military boots. Dancing slippers. An autograph book. A First Peanuts, Peanuts, and more Peanuts.

What do such a wide array of objects have in common? They are the stuff of which memories are made—and kept—and emotions revealed. And, along with some 100 other cherished keepsakes from childhood and beyond, they are the subjects of the brief essays and photos of Storied Stuff: Volume I.

The Storied Stuff project began in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic when Sharon and Steve Fiffer invited fellow writers and friends to play show and tell on a newly created website: storied-stuff.com. Since May of 2020, more than 200 people have contributed over 500 written pieces. Accompanied by photos, these appear weekly and have garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

A guitar, baseball cards, a Radio Flyer wagon, a handprint, an alarm clock, the American flag.

As co-editor Sharon Fiffer writes in the book’s Introduction: “Every bit of stuff we hang on to or are drawn to, tells a story. The universal, after all, is found in the specific.

April 30, 2025 | Christmas Lake Press | Paperback | 9781960865298

Mise-en-Scène

A collection of poetry

This collection of fifteen poems introduces the reader to a series of connected moments; scenes we all encounter but rarely pause to consider for their dramatic impact. We pass a woman hiding in an alley, her hair and body alight in neon. We watch a fortuneteller read palms at her kitchen table, somewhere in suburban New Jersey. We stand by, as if the world around us is simply an arrangement of scenery and stage props, while our loved ones battle in the streets. The sounds of mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers permeate Calhoun’s poems, striking like a snake at our indecisive hearts, while we ponder, without taking action: an audience transfixed yet separate from the stage play of life.

December 27, 2021 | Belgrave House | Paperback | 9798771497754


ESSAYS

FROM BOBBIE CALHOUN

JULY 2021

EMBRACING THE MENTAL CUBICLE

Why the geometry of finite space calms and motivates us.

APRIL 2021

THE INTERCEPT POINT OF IT ALL

How to say goodbye and good luck to our college kids. Again.

APRIL 2021

APRIL 2021

MY FATHER’S PENNIES

Numismatic remembrances and the weight of copper.

MARCH 2021

SINGULARITY OF PURPOSE & THE MISSION TO MARS

How to find the things that should get all our attention.

FEBRUARY 2021

THE MATHEMATICAL FORMULA FOR GRIEF

Unraveling the calculus behind incalculable loss.

DECEMBER 2021

NOTHING BEATS THE REAL THING

Before artificial intelligence and algorithmic programming, there was Pinky Dog.

AUGUST 2020

THE GREEN MONSTER

The most delightful things await you inside, bubbeleh!


POEMS

FROM BOBBIE CALHOUN

2021

Broken - 1942

2021

Stroke

2021

Allegiance Revisited