Jennifer Gilmore is the author of the novels Golden Country and Something Red. She has written reviews and essays for numerous anthologies and publications including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine, Salon and Tin House. You can reach her here: www.jennifergilmore.net.
My copy of Leonard Cohen’s Selected Poems 1956-1968 is not actually mine. I stole it from my childhood home eight years ago. When my parents split I was 18 years…