Acclaimed poet George Ella Lyon returns with a brilliant new collection that traces the course of a woman's life from girlhood to mature female wisdom. From the introductory poem, "Little Girl Who Knows Too Much," readers embark on a journey from youth, with its darker moments and denials of voice and story, to a place of strength and power with the poems themselves as a guide. The collection follows the narrator as she reconnects with her body and recovers memories of violence from early childhood as well as the wilderness of adolescence and of young wife- and motherhood. Gradually, a wider vision appears to her, and she turns to the Great Mother in all her manifestations -- writers, teachers, singers, Earth Herself--to reach new regions of self-knowledge and inner strength. In so doing, the narrator reaches beyond her personal experience and begins a healing process that situates her story within the larger human story. Alternately witty, charming, tender, thought-provoking, and bracing, Back to the Light expresses a vision of breathtaking breadth and depth. Following the arc of a woman's life, the collection traces the cycles of growth and change the narrator experiences in becoming more herself and finding the spirit to persevere while lyrically demonstrating the power of poetry to help and heal.

This comprehensive bibliography includes books written about or set in Appalachia from the 18th century to the present. Titles represent the entire region as defined by the Appalachian Regional Commission, including portions of 13 states stretching from southern New York to northern Mississippi. The bibliography is arranged in alphabetical order by author, and each title is accompanied by an annotation, most of which include composite reviews and critical analyses of the work. All classic genres of children's literature are represented.

Faucet
well
raincloud
sea ...
from each of these
comes water.
But where does
Water go?
To find out, honey,
turn the page,
dive in
with tongue
or toes,
with eyes and ears and nose--
and wonder
at the flow
of this great world's
life story.

Having been forced to act as mother and housekeeper during Mama's illness, twelve-year-old Amanda has a holiday in Memphis, far removed from the Depression drudgery of her Kentucky mountain family, and finds her world expanding even as she grows to understand and appreciate her background.

"A rich tale of healing, redemption, and social responsibility." -- Publishers Weekly "A compelling, skillfully told story.... Lyon's finest achievement." -- Lexington Herald-Leader "Lyon gives readers a story rich in precise, gorgeous language that glows like a sword on the forge and cuts as deep.... Tragedies old and new weave a tiny Kentucky town into the center of the universe." -- Booklist (starred review) "Lyon consistently reveals in her work an ability to render the peculiarities of the people and the places she knows best, while at the same time exploring concerns that lend her stories and poems universal appeal. The same is true of With a Hammer for My Heart, a powerful first novel that catapults Lyon into the ranks of other well-respected contemporary novelists." -- Southern Register

Born in the small, eastern Kentucky coal-mining town of Harlan, George Ella Lyon began her career with Mountain, a chapbook of poems. She has since published many more books in multiple genres and for readers of all ages, but poetry remains at the heart of her work. Many-Storied House is her fifth collection. While teaching aspiring writers, Lyon asked her students to write a poem based on memories rooted in a house where they had lived. Working on the assignment herself, Lyon began a personal journey, writing many poems for each room. In this intimate book, she strives to answer lingering questions about herself and her family: "Here I stand, at the beginning," she writes in the opening lines of the volume, "with more questions than / answers." Collectively, the poems tell the sixty-eight-year-long story of the house, beginning with its construction by Lyon's grandfather and culminating with the poet's memories of bidding farewell to it after her mother's death. Moving, provocative, and heartfelt, Lyon's poetic excavations evoke more than just stock and stone; they explore the nature of memory and relationships, as well as the innermost architecture of love, family, and community. A poignant memoir in poems, Many-Storied House is a personal and revealing addition to George Ella Lyon's body of work.

Stunning illustrations and poetic text fill the pages of this enchanting picture book that celebrates nature and its evocative, peaceful beauty.
The forest sees every season, from the first snowflake to the blossoming flower buds. The forest sees the ever-moving life in nature and the beauty it emanates. With lyrical language and rich and textured illustrations, "What Forest Knows "takes you on a hike through the trees, beyond the meadows, between the deer and foxes, and into the heart of the outdoors.

"Table of Contents A celebration of holiday poetry, fiction, essays, recipes, and songs by more than sixty of the Bluegrass state's finest writers. Gathered here are writings from some of the legendary voices of Kentucky -- and the nation -- as well as original Christmas stories and poetry from some of the state's emerging talents. Among the contributors to this handsome collection are Kentucky's visionaries, storytellers, historians, singers, cooks, children's authors, and poets, including all five Kentucky Poet Laureates. A delight for anyone interested in Kentucky literature, history, or traditions, A Kentucky Christmas promises to be a wonderful holiday gift, a treasured family keepsake, and a necessary addition for libraries and for personal collections.

From George Ella Lyon comes a dynamic and humorous collection examining the transformations of one woman's life as she tries on, takes on, and peels off identities learned from family stories, gender, fairy tales, and myths. She Let Herself Go spirals through girlhood, wifehood, motherhood, and writerhood, through the poet's evolution, casting a discerning -- and often irreverent -- eye on the cultural expectations that have shaped her. Claiming Virginia Woolf as word-mother, these poems converse with powerful feminist poets, including Muriel Rukeyser, Ruth Stone, and Grace Paley.

Beginning with the physical "change of life," where the poet is "Strung / on muscle / of myth and miracle / a uterine knot / of work and words" Lyon reveals the interiors of previous selves like the opening of a nesting doll. Although the collection upholds a unifying theme, Lyon's work resists homogeneity. As with the many personas the poet assumes and casts aside, the poems take on wildly divergent shapes that must be recognized before the parts can be united in a new way.

When Abby finds herself drifting in and out of events from the past, she enlists the help of her best friend, Harper, to figure out what to do. And though Harper is at first reluctant to believe the strange tale Abby tells, she cant ignore the message in her friends diary. The handwriting is Abbys but the voice belongs to Eliza Hoskins, a Civil War nurse who needs their help to save lives!
HERE & THEN, a novel for young readers, is subtitled "A Civil War Time-Travel Tale." (Revised edition published by MotesBooks in 2009 - www.MotesBooks.com)

Sonny is only one of the spies at the Bradshaw house in Mozier, Alabama. But as a child he saw a tray full of dinner come flying across the front hall at his father. His mother's aim was dead on. And Daddy's departure promptly followed. Loretta, Sonny's older sister, spies by eavesdropping. As she tells him, "How else am I going to survive in a family tight-lipped as tombs?" But the kids' spying only scratches the surface of what's really going on in this 1950s family in the deep South. While Deaton, the youngest, worries about pirates and vampires, and Uncle Marty, family protector, serves up scripture with every bite at the Circle of Life donut shop, somebody is watching. Somebody unsuspected by Sonny. But at thirteen he knows something's fishy, and he intends to find out what. That's why one Friday after Uncle Marty pays him for dishwashing at the Circle of Life, he sneaks out of town, first by bike and then by bus. Selma, his mama; Mamby; Nissa; Uncle Sink; Aunt Roo; his sister and brother -- nobody from that all-too-serious but often hilarious crew has a clue where he's gone. And even Sonny can't say exactly what he's after, until those tight-lipped tombs start talking, and life in the house on Rhubarb changes for good.

DON'T YOU REMEMBER? is a fascinating and haunting memoir of a stunning past-life event that began when author George Ella Lyon was five years old, traveling with her family on a trip to Niagara Falls. Many years later this family story hesitantly emerges, and she begins pursuing it (or, as she notes, the story seems to pursue her). Her quest to understand the details and characters of this spiritual mystery becomes a decades-long journey from Harlan County, Kentucky; to Bath, New York; to Llanrwst, Wales. Told with keen eye, open heart and mastery of language, this is a story for past-life believers and non-believers alike, for it is the author's healthy skepticism that keeps this unique story in balance with the reality of her daily life. BOBBIE ANN MASON calls DON'T YOU REMEMBER? "An IRRESISTIBLE story, filled with suspense and wonder." SILAS HOUSE says it is "HAUNTING, thought-provoking, brave ... and maybe even the best book yet from this beloved author." LEE SMITH deems it "ENTHRALLING ... a mystery story of the highest order." And MARY ANN TAYLOR-HALL describes this memoir as "RIVETING ... a penetrating, serious meditation ...." (More info: www.MotesBooks.com.)

Appalachia is no stranger to loss. The region suffers regular ecological devastation wrought by strip mining, fracking, and deforestation as well as personal tragedy brought on by enduring poverty and drug addiction. In Driving with the Dead, Appalachian poet, teacher, and artist Jane Hicks weaves an earnest and impassioned elegy for an imperiled yet doggedly optimistic people and place. Exploring the roles that war, environment, culture, and violence play in Appalachian society, the hard-hitting collection is visceral and unflinchingly honest, mourning a land and people devastated by economic hardship, farm foreclosures, and mountaintop removal.

With empathy and a voice of experience, Hicks offers readers a poignant collection of poems that addresses themes of grief and death while also illustrating the beauty, grace, and resilience of the Appalachian people. Invoking personal memories, she explores how the loss of physical landscape has also devastated the region's psychological landscape.

Graphic, bold, and heartfelt, Driving with the Dead is an honest and compelling call to arms. Hicks laments the irreplaceable treasures that we have lost but also offers wisdom for healing and reconciliation.

" "I don't agree with all the choices people make," says the author. "You probably won't either. My job is to let them tell their stories." And so she does in these thirteen warm, funny, and sad short stories about people making hard decisions for themselves and for their families: - Like Iona, who accidentally accepts a marriage proposal - And Daryll, just about to graduate from high school, whose mother is eager for him to "make something" of himself. - And Lexie and Jeb, deep in debt and already struggling to feed their six children, who find out a seventh is on the way.