When Vince Montague's wife perishes in a tragic car accident, he is plunged into a world of grief. After weeks of loneliness and despair, he begins to explore his wife's pottery studio in the wild hills of Northern California, teaching himself to mix clay, throw a pot, fire a kiln, trim and glaze. Just as his grief is ebbing and his future in clay is looking bright, a wildfire advances upon his studio and threatens to destroy everything he has created.

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Cracked Pot is a singular book: a story of love lost and the labyrinthine path through grief; a meditation on the craft of pottery and its power to inspire and restore; a rumination on the life of a writer and the refuge of words; an examination of how generational family trauma can shape an artist. Montague's haunting memoir is a kaleidoscopic and redemptive reading experience, one that serves to remind its readers about the cracks and the light.

"Cracked Pot is a soul-baring memoir of love, creativity, loss, grief, and creativity again."

—Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times bestselling author of Dreyer's English

"If you've somehow lost your heart in the fog of grieving, your hands might just provide a roadmap to rediscovery. Vince Montague's Cracked Pot arrives from a chasm of emptiness, building with profundity and grace upward to a quiet roar."

—Bruce Dehnert, co-author of the bestseller Simon Leach's Pottery Handbook, master kiln-builder, artist, and member of the International Academy of Ceramics (UNESCO)