On the day of her father's memorial, Hannah MacAllister hears of her sister's attempted suicide. Still shaken by the funeral, she must travel to Los Angeles to deal with Rebecca's condition. What she finds is Rebecca on life support, not expected to survive. Once a promising actress, her life and career had been in slow decline for years. The only clue to Rebecca's desperate act is a cryptic message: Everything would have been fine if not for Little Bear Creek! The place her father and his family escaped life as dirt-poor sharecroppers. In her search, Hannah discovers the truth hidden from her and her siblings by a father hell-bent on denying his own tumultuous past.

“A broad sampling of deeply impressive writings—essays, memoirs, poetry, letters, stories—by women from the Southern Highlands.” —Kirkus Reviews Winner of the 1997 Appalachian Studies Award Appalachian Writers Association 1999 Book of the Year Winner of the Susan Koppleman Award of the Popular Culture Association for Best Edited Collection in Women’s Studies Thirty-five women writers from Appalachia define the region in a larger, more generous, and more intricate way that it has been defined before, dispelling many demeaning stereotypes of the region. The writers tell their compelling stories with poignancy, eloquence, forthrightness, and humor. A new American literary renaissance is ablaze in the Southern Highlands—the very place so often depicted by outsiders as dimly lit. 35 photos. “Dyer succeeds admirably in a dual purpose: to promote a vital and virtually unknown body of work, and to suggest an Appalachian spirit that transcends state borders and artistic genres.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “From the well-known, like Dykeman, Sharyn McCrumb and Denise Giardina, to the lesser known, these essayists, in one way or another, write of what it means to come to fully appreciate one’s native tongue; to be inspired by the courage and fortitude of their Appalachian foremothers; and to glory in their profound attachment to the natural beauty of the Appalachian hills, hollers and trails.” —Bowling Green Daily News “The writers here represent some of the most unique and often unsung talent in literature. These essays will carry you to a far mountain place and whet your appetite for more.” —Magazine (Baton Rouge, LA)

In this exciting new novel by wildlife biologist, guide, and writer Robin Barefield, Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Dan Patterson flies to a remote area of Kodiak Island to investigate the massacre of eight people at a small lodge, where he encounters the worst murder scene he has ever investigated. How did someone kill eight people in the middle of the wilderness and then disappear? Patterson takes a hard look at those closest to the lodge owners. Did estranged siblings Brian or Deb Bartlett murder their parents and the six guests at the lodge? Was the killer the mysterious outdoorsman who lives a few miles away or someone at the cannery in this sparsely populated bay? Each time Patterson picks up a lead, new evidence shifts the course of the investigation. Meanwhile, the killer strikes again, murdering one of Patterson's main suspects, and Patterson knows he must stop the monster before more people die.

At dawn on January 29, 1863, Union-affiliated troops under the command of Col. Patrick Connor were brought by Mormon guides to the banks of the Bear River, where, with the tacit approval of Abraham Lincoln, they attacked and slaughtered nearly three hundred Northwestern Shoshoni men, women, and children. Evidence suggests that, in the hours after the attack, the troops raped the surviving women—an act still denied by some historians and Shoshoni elders. In exploring why a seminal act of genocide is still virtually unknown to the U.S. public, Kass Fleisher chronicles the massacre itself, and investigates the National Park Service's proposal to create a National Historic Site to commemorate the massacre—but not the rape. When she finds herself arguing with a Shoshoni woman elder about whether the rape actually occurred, Fleisher is forced to confront her own role as a maker of this conflicted history, and to examine the legacy of white women "busybodies."

Despite the stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding Appalachia, the region has nurtured and inspired some of the nation's finest writers. Featuring dozens of authors born into or adopted by the region over the past two centuries, Writing Appalachia showcases for the first time the nuances and contradictions that place Appalachia at the heart of American history. This comprehensive anthology covers an exceedingly diverse range of subjects, genres, and time periods, beginning with early Native American oral traditions and concluding with twenty-first-century writers such as Wendell Berry, bell hooks, Silas House, Barbara Kingsolver, and Frank X Walker. Slave narratives, local color writing, folklore, work songs, modernist prose—each piece explores unique Appalachian struggles, questions, and values. The collection also celebrates the significant contributions of women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community to the region's history and culture. Alongside Southern and Central Appalachian voices, the anthology features northern authors and selections that reflect the urban characteristics of the region. As one text gives way to the next, a more complete picture of Appalachia emerges—a landscape of contrasting visions and possibilities.

An anthology of Appalachia writings.

A collection of newspaper columns on Texas traditional life in the last half of the 20th century. Columns are from small and large newspapers in Texas, and were written in the 1990s. Subjects reflect writers' own interests, and also the interests of people in their communities, describing the traditions, customs, and practices of people in communities as diverse as the state is wide. Includes bandw photos of people and places of Texas. The editor teaches at New Mexico Junior College and has been a newspaper columnist for five years. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR