In Scott Alexander Hess’s pastoral novel "Drought", an isolated man inherits a farm and learns about the estranged relative who left it to him. When Parnell, an aimless orphan, inherits a tobacco farm from his Uncle Willy, he moves to... Read More

Michael N. McGregor’s musing memoir "An Island to Myself" is about using the practice of solitude to develop personal authenticity and enhanced creativity. In 1985, McGregor, then twenty-seven, quit his job as a magazine editor and... Read More

The skillful poems of Songs from Fern’s Pond explore loss, family, and the power of human will. Sheryl Pothier Harmer’s Songs from Fern’s Pond is a stirring poetic tribute to her mother, who staked out a solitary, hardscrabble... Read More

Keith Gilyard’s sprawling memoir "The Promise of Language" makes a passionate case for the power of language, particularly Black language, to transform lives and enliven art and culture. Born in Harlem and raised in Queens, Gilyard... Read More

In Richard Chiappone’s dark and humorous short story collection "Uncommon Weather", people battle isolation, boredom, and existential anxiety. These twelve intricate stories are set in Alaska’s small towns and vast wildernesses and... Read More

Awing over Jerusalem as “the place of all places,” Bret Lott’s memoir "Gather the Olives" relishes in time spent among Israelis and Palestinians. Lott, who loves Hebrew Bible “stories for their action, their mystery, their terror... Read More

"Patterns of Orbit" is Chloe N. Clark’s inimitable collection of short stories and flash fiction, in which mysterious events abound. Herein, lakeside waves churn and tear up docks; a food scientist creates fruit that tastes of another... Read More