Books
Not So Far From Home:
Owning Homelessness in My Own Backyard
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​In 2009 Charlie Quimby volunteered as a preschool classroom aide in a Minneapolis emergency family shelter. His main interest was setting at-risk kids on a more stable life path, but the struggles of their parents also spoke to his heart. Moved by the children’s potential and dismayed by their precarious circumstances, he began writing reports on his volunteer work as it expanded in Minneapolis and Western Colorado. In this collection of short vignettes and essays, he conveys the dignity and hopes of people he meets, while probing how flawed perceptions, fragmented support systems, and judgmental society hold back more humane solutions to homelessness.
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Inhabited
A Novel
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Meg Mogrin sells pricey houses in a boom-and-bust western city, belongs to the mayor’s inner circle, and aims to help her hometown attract a game-changing development. Isaac Samson lives in a tent, abhors disorder and believes Thomas Edison invented the Reagan presidency.
Displaced by the town’s crackdown on vagrancy, Isaac struggles to regain stability, while Meg contends with conflicted roles assisting the developer and serving on the homeless coalition. Then Isaac’s quest to return a lost artifact intrudes into Meg’s tidy world, shaking her sense of security and virtuousness.
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“I loved Inhabited. It transformed my understanding of the homeless in America.”
—Jonathan Odell, author of Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League
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Monument Road
A Novel​
Leonard Self has spent a year unwinding his ranch, paying down debts and fending off the darkening. Just one thing left: taking his wife’s ashes to her favorite overlook, where he plans to step off the cliff with her. But perhaps he’s not as alone as he believes.
Stark, beautiful landscapes attract all kinds. Artists and gawkers. Love birds and the lonely. Believers and scientists. Seekers and losers. Many have taken this same road past estrangement and loss to healing and hope. Though not all have returned, they can still help him answer whether his life is over after all.
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Planning to Stay
Learning to See the Physical Features of Your Neighborhood
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The New York Times called William Morrish and Catherine Brown “the most valuable thinkers in American urbanism today [...] who have yet to compile their ideas into a book.” Planning to Stay is that book—the first guide to provide a thoughtful, practical process for neighborhood planning for concerned citizens as well as professional planners.
Charlie Quimby translated their ideas into compelling language and a framework that introduces residents to the assets of where they live. And more important, to excite them about using planning to make it better.
“The principles and basic approach can be applied to any vicinity...Think of it as a Baedeker’s Guide to your neighborhood.”
— Public Art Review
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Other Books by Charlie Quimby
“Monument Road is so rich with landscape, character and event that such a small telling cannot begin to do it justice. Read this exquisite story; it is a joy and a wonder and a tour de force of authorship.”
—Shelf Awareness
​“Filled with vivid examples of being present with people and truly seeing them, hearing them, and honoring them.”
— Sherry Cole, Peace and Justice Center
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“Few books have moved me like Charlie Quimby's Not So Far from Home. Maybe it’s because I, too, see the heartbreak and the slivers of hope up close and personal when I show up at Peace House Community. It’s a place where I’ve learned it’s not as simple as most of us believe to slide into homelessness, and it’s far harder and more complex than it seems to break the cycle. I think we all own homelessness in our backyard. This book is no guilty trip, it's a reflection with a clear glass that doesn’t lie.”