Back to Abnormal

Back to Abnormal: Surviving With An Old Farm In the New South
Home Page Biography Articles One Good Hand Jimmie Wayne Calendar Grand Canyon Journal Links Contact Dana	Back to Abnormal is now nvailable at Motes Books and Amazon.com isbn: 978-1-934894-28-6 Intertwined essays spin out from Dana’s daily life on an old farm in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains, to the regional world of the ESL classes she teaches, to the national scope of her work as a writer and a teacher of creative writing, to create a web of connections between the actions of the individual in relation to the wider world. The varied chapters read like a string of summer front-porch evenings talking about her past, her work on the farm, the people she lives among, and the eternal puzzle of how to make sure her time on this spot of earth continues whole, healthy, and life-sustaining.	Early Praise for BACK TO ABNORMAL -
"Dana Wildsmith's new book is simply magnificent. One of our most-talented poets, she shows in Back to Abnormal that she is a first-rate prose writer as well. The rural world needs all the friends it can get, and it has here found the champion it deserves, which is about the highest praise I can offer. I can only say, urgently: read this book. It will change you in dozens of wonderful and unexpected ways. It changed me, and I will always be grateful." Philip Lee Williams, Author, In the Morning: Reflections from First Light
"I've seen much of this material in its gestation, and it goes far beyond what we think of as a memoir . . . The essays are teaching, telling, deeply passionate. The connections Dana makes between the actions of the one in relation to the wider world will knock you out and make you think about your own place in the larger scheme of things. Great news, Dana!" Linda Parsons Marion, Poet Mother Land
"Dana Wildsmith not only lives deliberately - she sets to work on her forty acres of land with hands and back and a poet's voice. In the process she discovers the power of essential facts about everything from Georgia history to family to stories. The stories in this book are not pretty ones. Wildsmith's stories are fire and the electricity of a timber rattler's bite. Her stories are sacrament. They are the wildness we need to keep our souls alive." Karen McElmurray, Author, Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother's Journey
"Dana Wildsmith's poetic essays are as rare and indispensable as golden seal. Her tales of modern life on an old family farm in the Appalachian foothills of North Georgia are more refreshing, poignant and timely. Wildsmith's writing, like her 40 acres and a lot of hope, is not simply rooted among the woods and pastoral ways in the 21st century; her beautiful stories are a testimony to what we risk to lose without their secrets, and Wildsmith's unique voice. Jeff Biggers, Author, Reckoning at Eagle Creek, United States of Appalachia and No Lonesome Road

Back to Abnormal: Surviving With An Old Farm In the New South

Back to Abnormal

is now nvailable at

Motes Books

and

Amazon.com

isbn: 978-1-934894-28-6

Intertwined essays spin out from Dana’s

daily life on an old farm in the foothills of the

north Georgia mountains, to the regional world

of the ESL classes she teaches, to the national

scope of her work as a writer and a teacher

of creative writing, to create a web of connections between the actions of the individual in relation to the wider world. The varied chapters read like a string of summer front-porch evenings talking about her past, her work on the farm, the people she lives among, and the eternal puzzle of how to make sure her time on this spot of earth continues whole, healthy, and life-sustaining.

Early Praise for BACK TO ABNORMAL -

"Dana Wildsmith's new book is simply magnificent. One of our most-talented poets, she shows in Back to Abnormal that she is a first-rate prose writer as well. The rural world needs all the friends it can get, and it has here found the champion it deserves, which is about the highest praise I can offer. I can only say, urgently: read this book. It will change you in dozens of wonderful and unexpected ways. It changed me, and I will always be grateful."

Philip Lee Williams,

Author,

In the Morning: Reflections from First Light

"I've seen much of this material in its gestation, and it goes far beyond what we think of as a memoir . . . The essays are teaching, telling, deeply passionate. The connections Dana makes between the actions of the one in relation to the wider world will knock you out and make you think about your own place in the larger scheme of things. Great news, Dana!"

Linda Parsons Marion,

Poet

Mother Land

"Dana Wildsmith not only lives deliberately - she sets to work on her forty acres of land with hands and back and a poet's voice. In the process she discovers the power of essential facts about everything from Georgia history to family to stories. The stories in this book are not pretty ones. Wildsmith's stories are fire and the electricity of a timber rattler's bite. Her stories are sacrament. They are the wildness we need to keep our

souls alive."

Karen McElmurray,

Author,

Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother's Journey

"Dana Wildsmith's poetic essays are as rare and indispensable as golden seal. Her tales of modern life on an old family farm in the Appalachian foothills of North Georgia are more refreshing, poignant and timely. Wildsmith's writing, like her 40 acres and a lot of hope, is not simply rooted among the woods and pastoral ways in the 21st century; her beautiful stories are a testimony to what we risk to lose without their secrets, and Wildsmith's unique voice.

Jeff Biggers,

Author,

Reckoning at Eagle Creek, United States of Appalachia and No Lonesome Road