The extraordinary debut collection from the Guggenheim Award-winning author of the forthcoming Gold Fame Citrus Winner of the 2012 Story Prize Recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2013 Rosenthal Family Foundation Award Named one of the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" fiction writers of 2012 Winner of New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award NPR Best Short Story Collections of 2012 A Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and Time Out New York Best Book of the year, and more . . . Like the work of Cormac McCarthy, Denis Johnson, Richard Ford, and Annie Proulx, Battleborn represents a near-perfect confluence of sensibility and setting, and the introduction of an exceptionally powerful and original literary voice. In each of these ten unforgettable stories, Claire Vaye Watkins writes her way fearlessly into the mythology of the American West, utterly reimagining it. Her characters orbit around the region's vast spaces, winning redemption despite - and often because of - the hardship and violence they endure. The arrival of a foreigner transforms the exchange of eroticism and emotion at a prostitution ranch. A prospecting hermit discovers the limits of his rugged individualism when he tries to rescue an abused teenager. Decades after she led her best friend into a degrading encounter in a Vegas hotel room, a woman feels the aftershock. Most bravely of all, Watkins takes on - and reinvents - her own troubled legacy in a story that emerges from the mayhem and destruction of Helter Skelter. Arcing from the sweeping and sublime to the minute and personal, from Gold Rush to ghost town to desert to brothel, the collection echoes not only in its title but also in its fierce, undefeated spirit the motto of her home state.

A collection of stories, essays, and exercises to spark your creative instincts, activate your inner guidance, and enliven your dreams Have you been called to express yourself with a level of courage and honesty that surprised even you? Did an image or moment cause you such joy that you needed to share it with the world? If so, you know what it means to be inspired. World-renowned spiritual teacher Light Watkins has spent most of his life learning how to seek out and tap into sources of inspiration. “Inspiration is part inner guidance, part blind faith in a greater possibility, and part inner voice,” he writes, “nudging you to take an action that helps you grow and expand your awareness.” In Knowing Where to Look, Light presents a trove of compelling inspirational material to catalyze positive change and give you fuel to push through self-limiting beliefs. Through 108 diverse essays, anecdotes, and parables, Light provides doorways to inspired thinking and imagination. Prompts offer reflection questions and action steps for further bringing your inspiration to life. Here you will also discover: • Recognizing the opposite of inspiration: the inner critic and its demands for safety • The joys and challenges of living minimally in a consumer society • How to listen for the intuitive whisper of true inspiration • Why the best action you can take when you’re creatively lost is to keep moving • How to grapple with fear when it stands in the way of your dreams • Why following your inspiration will often remove you from your comfort zone • Questions to ask yourself in order to recognize your blind spots • How to reorient your attitudes toward the concept of success • Embracing whimsy and small moments of chaos as allies • Why the process of achieving mastery is far from straightforward Rather than being a linear set of exercises, Knowing Where to Look is meant to provide the spark you need just as you need it. Open to any page at random, and discover an unexpected source of inspiration.

When her veterinarian father dies, sixteen-year-old Iris Wight must move from Maine to North Carolina where her Aunt Sue spends Iris's small inheritance while abusing her physically and emotionally, but the hardest to take is her mistreatment of the farmanimals.

A veteran on leave investigates a murder in his Kentucky backwoods hometown in this Appalachian noir by the acclaimed author of Country Dark. Mick Hardin, a combat veteran and Army CID agent, is home on a leave to be with his pregnant wife—but they aren’t getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder investigation—but local politicians are pushing for someone else to take the case. Maybe they think she can’t handle it. Or maybe their concerns run deeper. With his experience and knowledge of the area, Mick is well-suited to help his sister investigate while staying under the radar. Now he’s dodging calls from his commanding officer as he delves into the dangerous rivalries lurking beneath the surface of his fiercely private hometown. And he needs to talk to his wife. The Killing Hills is a novel of betrayal within and between the clans that populate the hollers—and the way it so often shades into violence. Chris Offutt has delivered a dark, witty, and absolutely compelling novel of murder and honor, with an investigator-hero unlike any in fiction.

Dad came home one day with one of those old cameras, the kind that use film. But Dad didn't take photos of the regular things people photograph . . . Told in stunning prose, with creative heart-warming illustrations, this book is a celebration of what we hold closest to our hearts.

A teenage boy faces an impossible choice in this brutally honest debut novel about family, faith, and the ultimate test of conviction, that was the winner of the Children's Choice Book Awards' Teen Choice Debut Author Award. Ten years ago, Braden was given a sign—a promise that his family wouldn't fall apart the way he feared. But Braden got it wrong: his older brother, Trey, has been estranged from the family for almost as long, and his father, the only parent Braden has ever known, has been accused of murder. The arrest of Braden's father, a well-known Christian radio host, has sparked national media attention. His fate lies in his son's hands; Braden is the key witness in his father's upcoming trial. Braden has always measured himself through baseball. He is the star pitcher in his small town of Ornette, and his ninety-four mile per hour pitch already has minor league scouts buzzing in his junior year. Now the rules of the sport that has always been Braden's saving grace are blurred in ways he never realized, and the prospect of playing against Alex Reyes, the nephew of the police officer his father is accused of killing, is haunting his every pitch.