Echoes of the Ozarks, Volume 1
by Ozarks Writers League; Edited by Louella Turner and Delois McGrew
Published by AWOK.COM Publishing
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Reviewed by Karen Morse
Echoes of the Ozarks is the first anthology from the Ozarks Writers League (www.ozarkswritersleague.org). The Ozarks Writers League was formed in 1983 by a diverse group of likeminded individuals. Beyond encouraging the creative output of Ozarkian writers and artists, the League's mission is to "preserve a record of the area's past and to record and document its present for the future."
The volume's opening piece, "The Storyteller and the Shepherd Boy" by Paul W. Johns, is a perfect beginning for an anthology like Echoes of the Ozarks. It tells the story of a young mountain boy who meets author Harold Bell Wright while he is in the Ozarks writing his novel, Shepherd of the Hills. The friendship the boy is able to cultivate with Wright over the course of two summers has a long-lasting effect on the boy's life and inspires him to a career in writing. This, in a nutshell, seems to be what the Ozarks Writers League is all about.
Echoes of the Ozarks includes both poetry and short fiction. Whether contemporary or historical, realistic or fantastical, each piece in this anthology has been informed by the Ozark Mountain Region. Inherent in each piece is a love for the region and its culture. Each author included in the anthology brings something different to the collection, which helps to make the Echoes of the Ozarks as unique and multifaceted as the region itself.
The diverse group of writers featured in Echoes of the Ozarks includes Pulitzer Prize nominated author Jory Sherman. Other members of the Ozarks Writers League whose work appears in the collection are Linda Apple, Velda Brotherton, Mildred Reeves Burnett, Leon Combs, Julie Failla Earhart, Dennis Edwards, Amy Harke-Moore, Betty Cracker Henderson, Jeanie Horn, Delois McGrew, Halie Philips, Ron Pruitt, Beverly Reid, Dusty Richards, Phil Truman, Louella Jo Turner, Donna Volkenannt, Karen Waggoner, Regina Cook Williams, and Ellen Withers.
The League plans to publish Echoes of the Ozarks, Volume 2 in late 2006.
Armchair Interviews says: A great way to learn about a region--through poetry and short stories. And, one of our reviewers, Julie Failla Earhart, is one of the authors.