"Like most freeways, highway14 is built for convenience not beauty.  Pure and simple, it’s a road meant for hurtling from Point A to Point B.  ...

      "You have to get off the 14 to appreciate the quirks and charms of the high desert.  To get acquainted with the area and its people, you must exit the freeway, navigate the grid of numbered streets and alphabetized avenues, and truck out into the boonies.  There you might spy a jackalope resting in the sparse shadow of a Joshua tree, or witness the flaming red skies of a desert sunset, or visit a rural roadside café and learn that Aldous Huxley once slept here...

     "So get off the 14, crank up your four-wheel drive, and poke around a bit... You can get back on the freeway any time, you know.  For now, slow down and stay a while."

                                            Excerpted from the book's forward by  R. Williams

      The Antelope Valley is a treasure trove of talent both artistic and literary, as witness the past Antelope Valley Anthologies.  Now it seems that the whole United States has discovered our hoard of talent in that Kay Ryan, former resident of the Antelope Valley, graduate of Antelope Valley High School, alumnus of Antelope Valley College, educator, and poet, has been selected as the Poet Laureate of the United States. Therefore it is with great pleasure and no surprise at all that we dedicate OFF THE 14, the fifth AV Anthology to…

 KAY RYAN

Poet Laureate of the United States

And former Antelope Valley Resident