Writing Home: Award-Winning Literature from the New West - Softcover

Brian Bouldrey, himself a winner of the Joseph Henry Jackson Special Award for Nonfiction, is author of the novels The Genius of Desire (Ballantine, 1993) and Love, the Magician (Haworth, 2000). He is editor of Traveling Souls: Contemporary Pilgrimage Stories (Whereabouts, 1999),Wrestling With the Angel (Riverhead, 1995), and the Best American Gay Fiction series (Little, Brown), and is the Associate Editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian "Lit." Supplement. He lives in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Foundation gives the Phelan and Jackson awards for literary achievement to writers under the age of 35. Writing Home is a retrospective collection of award-winning stories, essays, and poems, all featuring the theme "what it means to be a writer from the West." Contributors write about their experiences coming to the West as immigrants; they summarize the disappointments, challenges, and dashed hopes that come with exploring the traditional myth of the West; and they celebrate the cultural diversity that is a mainstay of literature of the New West. Each piece is accompanied by a biographical footnote. Many of the contributors indicate that winning this award initiated their recognition as a professional writer, making this book ideal for new writers. Selections include poetry by Jane Hirshfield, Robert Vasquez, Al Young, and James Schevill; fiction by Ernest J. Gaines, Mark Coovelis, and David Shields; and essays by Wendy Lesser, Lisa Michaels, Sallie Tisdale, and James D. Houston. Recommended for all writing and literature collections and regional libraries.
-Joyce Sparrow, St. Petersburg P.L., FL
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