Bøger af Susan Schmidt

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As paddler, flyfisher, bass fiddler, gardener, and Quaker naturalist- SUSAN SCHMIDT writes about river and forest ecology, bluegrass music, square dancing, chestnut trees, quilting, endangered species, local food, and environmental organizing in her new young-adult novel, Song of Moving Water. She has worked as science-policy analyst, sailboat captain, and professor of literature and environmental decision-making. Susan now edits books, with the same mindfulness as pruning apple trees, and walks beaches with her Boykin Spaniel. Her new book of poems is Salt Runs in My Blood. "Don't blame yourself for other people's decisions," Aunt Ruby tells Grace. At seventeen, Grace feels guilty that her father drowned in the river when she was ten. Just when she has moved back home, the power company proposes a dam that will flood her family farm. She builds confidence to raise her voice. With a backdrop of the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, Song of Moving Water is a young woman's coming-of-age story and a fictional environmental impact statement. When Grace returns to her father's homeplace seven years after his death, a proposed hydroelectric dam threatens the remote valley. Learning about farming and faith from her Aunt Ruby and about foraging herbs from neighbor Amos, Grace begins to value the self-sufficient community in contrast to her mother's social whirl in Richmond. In the country, Grace goes to a square dance at the elementary school; in the city, she goes to a debutante party at the Country Club. Grace plans on college, but her childhood friend Sally Bee is already married with two babies. Grace has a crush on Sam, aquatic ecologist and Quaker pacifist who is looking for an endangered species to stop the dam. While canoeing with Sam, Grace learns how to read a river and the Tao of water. In contrast to Sam, Grace's stepbrother Jared is a vain business student who slaps her in a political argument. With comic rivals, Amos and Farley, the half-Indian/half-Black musician up the creek, Grace goes to the Galax Fiddle Festival, and Farley competes in the fiddle contest. Reclaiming her mountain heritage, Grace organizes neighbors to celebrate their river, and she sings to protest the dam that may flood her family farm. When she skinnydips in a mountain pool, Grace accepts her growing maturity and forgives her own gracelessness. Walking the woods, Amos shows Grace the flowering shrub, Hearts-a-Busting, to remind her to keep her heart open. Susan Schmidt writes Song of Moving Water with the insight of a scientist, the imagery of a poet, and the big heart of one who loves the Appalachian highlands and their people. Poised on the cusp of adulthood, Grace comes back to McDowell County to learn what no classroom can teach: family secrets, spiritual knowledge, sexual stirrings-all against the backdrop of a newborn environmental movement. "Groundtruthing," she calls it-ways of knowing the land-from a mountain man's gift for hunting ginseng... to a woman's skill at putting by food... to a scrappy Quaker ecologist's understanding of the webs of life. This closely observed novel takes you deep into the embrace of the mountains. Valerie Nieman, author of Blood Clay and Neena Gathering

As sailboat captain, rower, flyfisher, gardener, and Quaker naturalist, SUSAN SCHMIDT writes poems about moving from dark into light as she plays in boats and walks long trails. She remembers bright parrots, big trout, gales at sea, glaciers, peach pie, old loves, Celtic ancestry, Civil War battlefields, and learning to navigate. Her Carolina Parakeet poem appears in Literary Trails of Eastern North Carolina (UNC Press, 2013). Her Gettysburg poem won the 2012 Guy Owen Poetry Prize. Susan has worked as science-policy analyst and professor of literature and environmental decision-making. Susan now edits books, with the same mindfulness as pruning apple trees, and walks beaches with her Boykin Spaniel, a Silkie like her, happiest wet. Salt Runs in My Blood relates the poet's personal journey-mostly by boat: her inner flights and actual escape as she loves her family and natural neighbors. Observing birds, she learns her own survival strategies. She travels to New Zealand, Alaska, the West Indies, but stays South where she can name the trees and swim year round. Vulnerable on land, she is more confident on the water. The book could have been called "The Watery Part of the World." Part I of Salt Runs in My Blood, "Estuary," opens with the poet's Chesapeake homeplace; learning to sail from her father whose ancestors were Chesapeake ship captains four hundred years (salt), her mother's Irish side (soil and ink), Civil War generals, and scuba diving. Falling as a rockclimber, she turns to paddling. Fleeing a scary marriage, she goes to sea. "Open Ocean," part II, follows her delivering sailboats across oceans to the islands. In "Pocket Water," part III, she flyfishes in North Carolina mountains, leaves a tired romance, returns to Virginia rivers. In "Sea Level," part IV, the poet walks the Camino de Santiago and settles on the Carolina coast where she survives hurricanes, rows and swims.

"In 'Tyranny of Small Decisions, ' I applaud your tackling such an important political subject. The language, imagery, line breaks & shape of the poem are stellar. Your instincts are on target. It