Conversation Pieces

Vol. 102 — Laterals

by Cesi Davidson

Read a sample from the book.

Advance Praise

“In Laterals, Cesi Davidson brings together an imaginative collection of short plays and poems that traverse the landscapes of memory, identity, resilience, and belonging. Historical figures share the stage with invented characters in worlds that stretch from a sperm bank to the rural Tennessee of 1890. Moving seamlessly between realism, absurdity, and magic, Davidson reveals the surprising ways lives intersect across time and circumstance. Thoughtful, witty, and deeply humane, Laterals is a memorable collection that resonates long after the final page.”
 — Anna Steegman, Staff Writer for the New York City Jazz Record

“Laterals, a mix of jaw dropping tunes.
Cesi Davidson orchestrates a play the way a masterful band leader refines musicians to create a brilliant ensemble composition. Her pen is her conductor’s baton. Every character in each play has opportunity to shine; a solo rocking out, chilling out, or energetic stillness. And when the characters come together with dialogue there is no question—there is one story unfolding and that story is captivating. With magical realism this author brings us in and out of historical- based possibilities, imagined worlds, and ideas seldom considered. The reader, the audience, joins in the fiction creating the music with the humanity we all share.”
 —Tonya Pinkins, Actor, Producer, Director, Screenwriter

“Cesi Davidson’s style is both inviting and confrontational. In Generic Human, her writing is playful and unexpectedly witty. In The Limitations of Sin, her writing is deep and revelatory. In both plays, her reverence for history is deeply felt through considerate creation of her characters and the stories she tells. Davidson effectively develops a narrative style that is worthy of the heaviness and historical importance of the subject matter. After reading The Limitations of Sin, I imagine myself emerging from the darkness of the theatre not feeling dejected. Instead, I’m filled with a desire to do the self-reflection that the play’s unrepentant enslaver, Don Pedro Montes so strongly rejected. In doing so, I’m yearning to evolve into someone better, kinder, and more insightful.”
 — Margaret Goldrainer, Visual Artist & Set Costumer for Film & Television

“In her little jewel of a play "Miss Grier Rises" in Laterals, Cesi Davidson has invited us to imagine what it is to dream an impossible dream and realize it. The play is based on the true story of Dr. Eliza Ann Grier, a formerly enslaved woman, who dared to pursue her vision of becoming a physician. Alternating school years with work in cotton fields, she demonstrated a formidable determination and completed her studies despite the reverberating voices of naysayers and unbelievers.

Like a song that you can't get out of your head, this play lingers as you ponder- who dared to dream a dream so big? How does one, against insurmountable odds, achieve a dream? Read this and be called to live your best vision of yourself, never doubting your abilities and worth.”
 —AnnaMaria Assevero, Physician

“Laterals by Cesi Davidson is full of unexpected surprises. Her plays feel at first like mysterious vignettes you enter, not knowing which way is up. Then, there is a turning phrase, and you have an “ah-ha” moment. You are suddenly at home and at one with the characters. While there is always the trademark Cesi Davidson sly humor, the playwright is never frivolous. She won’t allow us to forget the profound sadness inherent in living. Read these short plays if you wish to be jjostled, embraced, and come closer to your fellow human beings.”
 —Elizabeth Potter, Director, Phoenicia Library

“Weaving rich magical realism with profound historical imagination, Cesi Davidson delivers a breathtaking, masterfully crafted collection of theatrical gems that bypass the rigid, straight-and-narrow paths of storytelling to explore the healing margins of human connection.”
 —Tristan Louis, activist/entrepreneur/writer at TNL.net

“Rooted in the profound philosophy that communication is the very core of our existence, these plays act as 'laterals' — the peacemakers that flow side-to-side, refusing forced prescriptions, and creating a vital space where the soul can truly breathe and humanity can begin to heal. A deeply moving, intellectually stimulating, and spiritually rich masterwork.”
 —Jean Thesquare, Author, Re:Claim

"When you enter Cesi Davidson’s world, you never know what you are going to encounter. It is as if a surrealist painting has suddenly come to life: you might find yourself face to face with a talking super sperm one moment and a philosophical branzino fish the next. But beneath the whimsy and the unexpected is a collection of stories filled with powerful characters whose voices deserve to be heard. Perhaps it is fitting that this collection is called Laterals. In phonetics, a lateral is a sound in which the airstream takes an unexpected route, flowing along the sides of the tongue rather than straight down the center. The characters in this collection do much the same. They refuse to travel the expected path. Just as laterals exist between categories, Cesi’s stories exist between history and imagination, tragedy and redemption, the strange and the familiar. In Cesi’s world, these characters find the justice they deserve, even when their real-life stories ended in tragedy. She reimagines their lives and creates a world in which their histories can be reclaimed, their dignity restored, and their wounds, in some small way, healed. In Cesi Davidson’s world, the world itself is healed."
 —Evgeniya Maryutina, Linguist, Researcher, Adjunct Professor, Eternal Student of Phonetics

ISBN: 978-1-61976-292-3 (13 digit)
Publication Date: Oct 2026
paperback 152 pages