In All the In Between: My Story of Agnes, visual artist Laurie Brownell McIntosh uses more than 70 painted panels to tell the cradle-to-grave story of her late mother, Agnes Smith Brownell. A scientist, artist, doctor s wife, and mother, Agnes approached life with a kind of candor and pragmatism that left little room for sentimentality. From telling her thirsty and whining children to swallow their spit, to tending to her dying husband, to orchestrating a life of ritual in her widowhood, Agnes was a force to be reckoned with, eliciting emotions from her youngest daughter that were equal parts fear, reverence, and love. All the In Between: My Story of Agnes is a eulogy, a memorial, a work of art, and a kind of tribute that validates everything between the first and last breaths of a life well lived. There are no heroes or heroines in the story; no parables; no broken hearts or drama; no secrets to take to the grave. Yet the story is extraordinary in its simplicity. By capturing images of her mother s life through the intimacy of her own interpretations, McIntosh allows her readers a rare kind of insight to the life of a stranger made close and personal for us through the nuance of her daughter s familiarity. Yet, she does so without folly. Using paintings that are honest and straight-forward, yet beautiful and tender, she tells the tale of her mother s life with the kind of dignity that would have made Agnes proud.

In this collection of award-winning short stories, Cynthia Boiter writes with sensitivity and intellect about characters from the South and the social constructs that attempt to define them in the 20th century. With a keen eye toward gender roles and family dynamics, Boiter writes about characters that are as grounded in their sense of place as they are committed to integrity, fidelity, and intellectual veracity. The 14 short stories in this collection share the narratives of smart Southerners as they address issues of love and tradition, birth and death, growing up and growig old with an underlying but unobtrusive sociological analysis. Whether the relationships explored are those of mother and daughter, father and son, husband and wife, daughter and gender-confused father, or nephew and closeted-gay uncle, they are approached with a kind of honesty and intimacy that demonstrates what happens when good people demand the best of one another, even under conditions in which the best is the least likely behavior to expect. Most importantly, Buttered Biscuits brings to light an unexpected brand of Southern feminism and an intense sense of honor and social justice in characters who live and die in a part of the country where the traits are often assumed non-existent.