Kathryn DeZur
Kathryn DeZur is a New York-based essayist, poet, Emerita Professor of English and Humanities, crafter, and an avid treasure-hunter in thrift, resale, and consignment stores. Her memoir-in-essays, Objects of Affection, explores identity as represented by and manifested in our things.
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Bold, beautiful, unhidden: Visible Mending reclaims repair as an act of care, creativity, and quiet resistance.
In Visible Mending, essayist, poet, and Emerita Professor Kathryn DeZur turns her keen eye for the intimate and overlooked toward the humble act of repair. Beginning with a small pile of worn, beloved garments, DeZur unspools a layered meditation on mendingβnot to erase damage, but to honor it.
Blending memoir, textile history, and cultural critique, this book-length braided essay explores the aesthetics and ethics of visible mending within contemporary Western culture. DeZur considers how acts of repair intersect with sustainability, status, fast fashion, and the politics of bodiesβtouching on fatphobia, ageism, and the pressures of self-presentation. Throughout, she asks what it might mean to liveβand dressβin ways that acknowledge wear, time, and transformation.
At once personal and expansive, Visible Mending invites readers to reconsider the stories embedded in the things we keep, the marks we conceal, and the ways we might instead choose to make them seen.
REVIEWS OF Visible Mending
"A beautiful, personal memoir that traces the author's life through the pieces they've mended β¦ a thoughtful exploration of why we mend and repair clothing and textiles β¦ it reflects on how our clothes become woven in with memories, meaning, and cultural touchstones. What a lovely read." Sara Temme, the Textile Anthropologist
"Part memoir, part self-exploration, part history and part social critique, Kathryn DeZur takes us on a deep dive into the personal and political meaning woven into the garments she mends.β Kathryn Camfield, Gather and Stitch
