Keynote
An unsentimental vision of the West, new and old, comes to life in a gritty new collection of stories by the author of Snow, Ashes
Book Title
Ghosts of Wyoming
Subtitle
Stories
Cover Image
- A Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association “Reading the West” Selection
Body
In Ghosts of Wyoming, Alyson Hagy explores the hardscrabble lives and terrain of America's least-populous state. Beyond the tourist destinations of Jackson Hole and Yellowstone lies a less familiar and wilder frontier defined by the tension wrought by abundance and scarcity.
A young runaway with a big secret slips across the state border and steals a collie pup from the Meeker county fairgrounds. A chorus of trainmen details a day spent laying rail across the Wyoming Territory, while contemporary voices describe life on the oil and gas fields near Gillette. A traveling preacher is caught up in a deadly skirmish between cattle rustlers and ranchers on his way from Rawlins to the Indian camp at the Popo Agie River. Locals and activists clash when a tourist makes an archaeological discovery on Hoodoo Mountain.
With spirited, lyrical prose, Hagy expertly weaves together Wyoming's colorful pioneer and speculator history with the not-often-heard voices of petroleum workers, thrill-seeking mountain climbers, and those left behind by the latest boom and bust.
A young runaway with a big secret slips across the state border and steals a collie pup from the Meeker county fairgrounds. A chorus of trainmen details a day spent laying rail across the Wyoming Territory, while contemporary voices describe life on the oil and gas fields near Gillette. A traveling preacher is caught up in a deadly skirmish between cattle rustlers and ranchers on his way from Rawlins to the Indian camp at the Popo Agie River. Locals and activists clash when a tourist makes an archaeological discovery on Hoodoo Mountain.
With spirited, lyrical prose, Hagy expertly weaves together Wyoming's colorful pioneer and speculator history with the not-often-heard voices of petroleum workers, thrill-seeking mountain climbers, and those left behind by the latest boom and bust.
List Price
$15.00
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About the Author
Credit: Ted Brummond
Praise
- “Vibrant tales of disappearance, murder, bad weather, loneliness, generosity, betrayal, and, yes, ghosts…. [Hagy’s] Wyoming is a harsh world, but one shot through with transcendent moments.”—The Boston Globe
- “These eight burnished stories confirm Alyson Hagy’s importance in American literature; her seamless blending of landscape and lives, her very modern understanding of the vulnerability of kindness.”—Los Angeles Times
- “Eerie shadows drift through these pages and lives.”—The Believer
- “Hagy explores the lonely state of the Equality State, with its literally and figuratively haunted inhabitants. Hagy has an ear for the locals and a feel for the vast lonely landscape, capturing modern issues like small ranchers’ struggles with wolves and environmentalists, and the small details of late nights in pickups and the gradual erosion of Wyoming’s landscape.”—Publishers Weekly
