Books published by publisher Louisiana State University Press

Like Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood and Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Brian Doyle's stunning fiction debut brings a town to life through the jumbled lives and braided stories of its people. In a small fictional town on the Oregon coast there are love affairs and almost-love-affairs, mystery and hilarity, bears and tears, brawls and boats, a garrulous logger and a silent doctor, rain and pain, Irish immigrants and Salish stories, mud and laughter. There's a Department of Public Works that gives haircuts and counts insects, a policeman addicted to Puccini, a philosophizing crow, beer and berries. An expedition is mounted, a crime committed, and there's an unbelievably huge picnic on the football field. Babies are born. A car is cut in half with a saw. A river confesses what it's thinking. . . It's the tale of a town, written in a distinct and lyrical voice, and readers will close the book more than a little sad to leave the village of Neawanaka, on the wet coast of Oregon, beneath the hills that used to boast the biggest trees in the history of the world.

Like Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood and Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, Brian Doyle’s stunning fiction debut brings a town to life through the jumbled lives and braided stories of its people.In a small town on the Oregon coast there are love affairs and almost-love-affairs, mystery and hilarity, bears and tears, brawls and boats, a garrulous logger and a silent doctor, rain and pain, Irish immigrants and Salish stories, mud and laughter. There’s a Department of Public Works that gives haircuts and counts insects, a policeman addicted to Puccini, a philosophizing crow, beer and berries. An expedition is mounted, a crime committed, and there’s an unbelievably huge picnic on the football field. Babies are born. A car is cut in half with a saw. A river confesses what it’s thinking…It’s the tale of a town, written in a distinct and lyrical voice, and readers will close the book more than a little sad to leave the village of Neawanaka, on the wet coast of Oregon, beneath the hills that used to boast the biggest trees in the history of the world.

Winner of 2013 John Burroughs Association Riverby Award Honorable Mention After a huge tree crashes to the ground during a winter storm, ten-year-old Ellie and her new friend, Ricky, explore the forest where Ellie lives. Together, they learn how trees provide habitat for plants and animals high in the forest canopy, down among mossy old logs, and deep in the pools of a stream. The plants, insects, birds, and mammals they discover come to life in colored pen-and-ink drawings. An engaging blend of science and storytelling, Ellie’s Log also features: • Pages from Ellie’s own field notebook, which provide a model for recording observations in nature • Ellie’s advice to readers for keeping a field notebook • Ellie’s book recommendations Online resources for readers and teachers—including a Teacher’s Guide—are available at ellieslog.org.

A deep-sea diver, a dancer, an activist, an aviator, a singer, and a soldier-Great Girls in Michigan History highlights some of the girls from Michigan's past who did amazing things before they turned twenty years old. Author Patricia Majher presents easy-to-read mini-biographies of twenty girls with ties to Michigan, representing a variety of personal backgrounds and interests, locations across the state, and historical time periods. Majher introduces little-known stories, like those of female aviator Nancy Harkness (Love), pioneer Anna Howard Shaw, freedom seeker Dorothy Butler, professional baseball player Marilyn Jenkins, union leader Myra Komaroff (Wolfgang), and Native American writer Jane Johnston (Schoolcraft). She also includes figures that many readers will recognize-including First Lady Betty Bloomer (Ford), jockey Julie Krone, Motown star Diana Ross, and tennis champion Serena Williams. Majher shows that while life wasn't always easy for these girls, they were able to overcome any number of obstacles to achieve their goals. Great Girls in Michigan History includes a brief section on each girl's life after the age of twenty and a glossary of selected vocabulary words at the end of the book. With its depictions of young women who have not typically been represented in history texts, this book will be inspirational reading for upper elementary school students (ages 8 to 12) and welcomed by Michigan schools, bookstores, and public libraries.

Ragged Anthem displays the same inimitable voice and unflinching gaze that made Chris Dombrowski a Poetry Foundation bestseller and silver medal winner of Foreword Reviews' Book of the Year Award in poetry. His work has been celebrated by renowned writers such as Jim Harrison and Alicia Ostriker, who have called his books (respectively) "extraordinarily powerful and graceful" and "one of the most beautiful books of poetry I've read in years." As in Dombrowski's previous books, in Ragged Anthem the natural world is as alive and as fully realized as language allows. His comfort with the naming of the world, combined with a life lived intimately with the other species that populate the landscape of home, suggest an authenticity that few can claim. Ragged Anthem is a demonstration in continued poetic growth and expanded terrain. Written from the speaker's midlife, the poems delve into the transformation of family, childhood tragedies, and politics. Dombrowski lifts the veil on the imbecilic bureaucracies-those on Capitol Hill and in the faculty meetings occurring in our own conference rooms-that often help to whittle our fates. The book contains well-placed and evocative allusions to such figures as American painter Mark Rothko and Saint Francis of Assisi, as well as the periodic highlighting of language from contemporary song lyrics. These "borrowings" set forth a conversation between the poet and other artists that evoke the original source while transforming it into something new, proving that words, although artifice, live within our bodies, changing our relationship to place. Ragged Anthem makes a powerful and important contribution to contemporary poetry. Fans of Dombrowski's past works and newcomers alike will bask in the poet's firm yet relaxed approach to the shaping of language.

Albert Lambert had two passions in life: flying and his hometown of Saint Louis. After his first ride in a hot air balloon, Albert became a huge supporter of all things related to aviation. He learned to pilot a hot air balloon and fly an airplane. He was a friend of the Wright brothers and other early aviators, and organized exhibitions of the latest airplane technology. He helped St. Louis build airfields and promoted the city as a center for aviation. He even helped Charles Lindbergh raise money to build his airplane, The Spirit of Saint Louis, whose name honored Saint Louis as a center in the new aviation industry. The airport Albert Lambert started is still named in his honor, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. This book is included in the nonfiction book series, Notable Missourians, for young readers in grades 4 to 6 about people who contributed to Missouri's history or culture and who were born or lived in Missouri.

Oregon is renowned not only for the natural beauty of its coastline but also for its enlightened tradition of publicly owned and protected beaches. The Oregon Coastal Access Guide is essential for anyone exploring the nearly four hundred miles of coastline that lie between the Columbia River and the California border. Now revised and updated, the Access Guide offers a north-to-south tour of Oregon’s Pacific edge, with extensive mile-by-mile coverage of scenic U.S. Highway 101. The most comprehensive and useful guide to the Oregon coast, it provides a convenient and reliable reference on where to go, how to get there, and what to expect, including • thorough descriptions of beaches, parks, forests, campgrounds, boat ramps, picnic areas, and hiking and equestrian trails, • details on and directions to natural areas, from estuaries and lakes to dunes and headlands, • up-to-date information on outdoor recreation, including angling, crabbing, clamming, boating, whale watching, golfing, photography, surfing, and cycling, • features on a range of topics, including history, weather, tides, marine and coastal wildlife, cultural attractions, and historic coastal bridges, • listings of resources to help travelers plan and enjoy their trips. Kenn Oberrecht’s detailed knowledge of the Oregon coast—he has driven thousands of miles on coastal roads and hiked hundreds of miles on beaches and trails—informs every page of this indispensable guide.

Integrating both Maori myth and New Zealand reality, The Bone People became the most successful novel in New Zealand publishing history when it appeared in 1984. Set on the South Island beaches of New Zealand, a harsh environment, the novel chronicles the complicated relationships between three emotional outcasts of mixed European and Maori heritage. Kerewin Holmes is a painter and a loner, convinced that "to care for anything is to invite disaster." Her isolation is disrupted one day when a six-year-old mute boy, Simon, breaks into her house. The sole survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, Simon has been adopted by a widower Maori factory worker, Joe Gillayley, who is both tender and horribly brutal toward the boy. Through shifting points of view, the novel reveals each character's thoughts and feelings as they struggle with the desire to connect and the fear of attachment.