Jo Hockenhull – illustratör

This ground-breaking book was many years in the making by some of the country's leading women scholars.Until the present century, few people thought of travel as a female pursuit. Men traveled; women stayed at home. But women have always journeyed, for many reasons, as this important book demonstrates."There is almost nothing on women and travel," notes Susan Armitage, editor of the acclaimed The Women's West and a contributor to Women and the Journey. "It has been taken for granted that men are adventurers and explorers, but what this does is wipe out the stories of women travelers. As we looked at how women's senses of their journeys differed from those of men, we felt like explorers ourselves."The eleven essays in Women and the Journey, as well as the original artwork by Jo Hockenhull, approach the theme of women and travel from a variety of perspectives, including literature, history, foreign languages, fine arts, and women's studies. Over several years the contributors worked on this project as a team, sharing research, reading one another's work, uniting in the process of creating a unique book together. Like quilt making, "that most female of activities," note McLeod and Frederick in their prologue, "each of us had some say in how the final product was put together."Women and the Journey is destined to become a women's studies classic. Contributors include Susan Armitage, Joan Burbick, Susanna Finnell, Bonnie Frederick, Diane Gillespie, Jo Hockenhull, Virginia Hyde, Birgitta Ingemanson, Susan McLeod, Sheila Ruzycki O'Brien, Louise Schleiner, Marina Tolmacheva, and Annette White-Parks.

River Earth is a personal exploration of family and community in and around the rivers of the Pacific Northwest. In these poignant essays, John Pierce probes the lifelong impact of a teenage boy's loss of a father, and how it led his own sons to a life on the river. He lifts the covers from the seeming tranquility of north Idaho's woods to reveal the personal impact of a friend's fear of racial violence. His mother's heroic lingering death forces him to confront who he is--while in the midst of a relationship that had lain dormant. Nighttime visits by Johnny Cash, two-foot long fish that don't exist, and a son who hears music in his head while wandering along Idaho's Jeru Creek all enliven and enrich this moving yet humorous book. Love, anger, wonder, a sense of place, of family, and of community, all emerge in this collection of evocative autobiographical excursions.