Holly’s Night Owl Sonata (in one movement) was written between the end of 2020 and 2023. It was first published in MONDAY ARTPOST, an online publication we produced. She wrote a total of forty pieces for the series, after which she began a new series in a different format. As she neared the end of Night Owl Sonata, we discussed compiling it into a book. Holly suggested placing a series of my sequential photographs at the end of the book as a fade-out.

However, when she wrote the final piece, which was about trees and the forms connected to the alphabet, we included her photo images alongside the text. These images would need to be part of the book as well. Because of this, it no longer seemed fitting to have my sequential photographs follow, as the rhythm would be disrupted. Instead, I decided to move the black-and-white sequential photographs to the beginning of the book as an overture, even though I could no longer discuss this change with her. Holly had passed away.

In her final months, while we were discussing the book, she suggested using a work by Gary Michael Dault for the cover and left the final selection to me, as we had many of Gary’s works on hand.

I believe Night Owl Sonata (in one movement) to be her finest literary work. The poem-prose pieces, written straight from her heart, reveal her greatest strength. After years of intense creativity as an artist, her writing underwent a kind of purification—it became almost translucent. Her English, a second language, had matured, flowing with ease and elegance. It is especially sorrowful that she left us just as she reached this peak.