Difficult Beauty: Rambles, Rants and Intimate Conversations

Difficult Beauty’s quiet reveries and sensual images offer a respite from troubled times. Written in the voice of a friend to a friend, they are wise, witty, at times poignantly silly, at times heartbreaking. They make beauty out of pain, sense out of no-sense.

Available by order from your local independent bookshop or through Bookshop.org. 

Difficult Beauty was listed as a finalist in the 2024 Indie Book awards in the category of Women’s Literature – (non-fiction).

Praise for Difficult Beauty

“The language here is sheer poetry, but these are not meant to be read as poems. They are tiny letters, photographs, journal entries, “rants and intimate conversations,” all of these together and more. On each candid page, Crux reveals what she sees, how she feels, how she hurts, how she celebrates. “It is the least I can do,” she says in one exquisite ramble, “bear witness.””

— Camille Dungy, for Orion, author of Trophic Cascade

“Difficult Beauty is a rare gem, the perfect amalgam of the visual and the verbal, a sublime pairing that satisfies the eye, the ear, and the heart.”

— Gary Young, author of  Even So: New and Selected Poems, and That's What I Thought

“Writer and artist Lauren Crux has brought forth an extraordinary vision in her new collection of short prose and photography, Difficult Beauty... Her photographs are wonderful—elegant, unique and thoughtful.  Wise, funny, profound, Difficult Beauty is a true gem of a book.”

— Carolyn Brigit Flynn, author of Communion, and editor of Sacred Stone, Sacred Water and Sisters Singing

I love the look of Difficult Beauty as a poem-object. It is both concrete and porous. Crux’s images take up about the same amount of ground as the words that speak beside them.  Each pair seems to be a counterweight against forgetting.

— Camille Norton, author of A Folio for the Dark

I am slowly spending time with Difficult Beauty. Slowly because after reading each entry and taking in each image I have to stop to allow the image and the words to continue to move through me. My God, what a gorgeous and intelligent thing Lauren Crux has wrought. It is a wonder.

—Paula Ross, writer, interdisciplinary artist

Nothing in your [book] prepared me for just how BEAUTIFUL it is. All of the exquisite photos, the layout and design, the text...it is, quite simply, exquisite!!! 

—E.G. Crichton, author of Matchmaking in the Archive: 19 Conversations with the Dead and 3 Encounters with Ghosts

[Difficult Beauty] is magnificent!!! I am loving it, having to restrain myself (always a good sign) from reading page after page after page because I really want to savor each one.

—Marilyn DuHamel, writer, author of blog Earth Dialogues

Difficult Beauty is a tapestry of stories and images; delicate renderings of passion, kindness, beauty, inquisitiveness, and humor. They are public conversations with the self about love, life, death, transition, and time.

—Ellen Greenfield, author of White Roses and Come from Nowhere.

This collection more than fulfills its promise to the reader, a promise expressed as a hope that the reader find “respite,” and be given “time for reverie.” For more of what is hoped for, read that opening letter. For far more than that, read Difficult Beauty. 

—Lisa Andrew, author of The Inside Room and Dear Liz

What existential wisdom into how we should live
What uplifting humor to break through the hard times
What compassion to see life and those around us with kindness
What insight into what one should do with the highly trained but continually barking dogs

—Allen Hasty, all around citizen and organic farmer, Santa Cruz, CA