Our mother named us after our aunts, but Dad was the one who picked our nicknames. He gave us all the names of knives, so my older sister was Steak and my little sister was Bowie and I was Cleaver. By the time I was five nobody ever called us anything else. Early on, […]

He knew the places where the morels grew — under the leaf mould, on the lee sides of trees. He led me down through the buzzing woods, and I thought, a man like that I could love for a season.

My dad taught me when I was five years old. He took me to the basement so Mom wouldn’t see. He laughed because the cards were almost too big for my hands. I thought he was laughing at me. Two days later I could beat him.
I played my first real tournament at seven. […]