Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West » (None)

LINDA HASSELSTROM is the author of many highly acclaimed books of nonfiction and poetry and the coeditor of Leaning into the Wind and Woven on the Wind. She divides her time between Wyoming and South Dakota.

Crossing the eponymous Wyoming creek together in a truck one day, the three editors wondered why it is that memorable women in the Old West so frequently are portrayed as either insane, loose, or nameless. Their cure is this collection of bite-size prose and poetry by contemporary Western women telling personal stories about their connections to the West and the rest of the world. It's a tribute to the ordinary and the unconventional ways that women have shaped and sustained communities and contributed (often silently and namelessly) to the legacy of the West. The editors' third anthology of women's writing, it includes the work of 153 women from Nebraska Buddhists to suburban rodeo moms. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Library Journal

The editors and many of the authors featured in Leaning into the Wind and Woven on the Wind have reunited for another likable collection of essays and poetry featuring women of the American West. This hodgepodge is comfortable and folksy yet diverse. Where else can a reader find an essay by a Nebraska Buddhist followed by a poem recalling "Vagina Dialogues on a Road Trip"? Themes emerge throughout the collection-how women minister to one another with food and a helping hand, how laughter heals and protects, and how vitally important relationships are to women, especially to those living in remote areas. Many selections are heartwarming, some are chilling in their truthfulness, and many demonstrate the necessary humor of survivors. Recommended for public and academic libraries with regional collections.-Jan Brue Enright, Augustana Coll. Lib., Sioux Falls, SD Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.