MAMMOTH PROSE BOOKS

by Lana Wirt Myers. ISBN 978-0-9845912-2-0 $16.00, soft cover, perfect bound, 136 pages, 39 illustrations. PRAIRIE RHYTHMS: THE LIFE & POETRY OF MAY WILLIAMS WARD, reestablishes the reputation of this leading poet who lived 1882 to 1975. She was celebrated by Harriet Monroe of Poetry magazine; she was a fellow at MacDowell Colony; and she won awards from the Poetry Society of America. Among the national publications that carried her work were Nation, New York Times, Life, New York Sun, Ladies Home Journal, and Good Housekeeping. Numerous Kansas newspapers and literary publications also featured some of the two thousand poems she wrote during her career. In addition, she herself was an editor of the national poetry magazine The Harp. The book includes a selection of 45 poems as well as examples of her wood cuts.

Lana Wirt Myers has been a part-time freelance writer for over thirty years, including seven years as a newspaper columnist. Her published works include newspaper and magazine articles as well as a book entitled Newton Medical Center: Merging the Past with the Future (Mennonite Press, 2006). A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Myers attended the University of Kansas and earned a degree in history at Wichita State University. Myers lives in Newton, Kansas, with her husband, Bob. She has a grown son and two grandchildren.

by Pamela Dawes Tambornino. Hard cover, $24.00, ISBN 978-0-9845912-1-3 Perfect bound paper, $14.00, ISBN 978-0-9845912-0-6 132 pages, PUBLICATION DATE JULY 1, 2010 Teachings of a Cherokee spiritual person occur spontaneously, not in formal classrooms. Often these lessons are passed on verbally from mother (or grandmother) to daughter or father to son. Pamela Dawes Tambornino shares her grandmother’s knowledge of language, herbal cures, animals, and people. She shows how the entire life of a healer is a text to be pondered, as well as nature and its processes. She recalls her childhood lessons, beginning at age six and continuing into her early teens. As the author reflects upon her grandmother, she brings to life the humor and the generosity that made her grandmother a healer respected by her Oklahoma family and community. Tambornino, an enrolled member of Cherokee Nation, follows her grandmother’s lead as she entertains her readers and also, indirectly, instructs them.

Pamela Dawes Tambornino (Cherokee, Wolf Clan) teaches at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. She received her BA in English, Magna Cum Laude, at Washburn University and a Master of Library Science degree at Emporia State University. She is completing a Master of Arts in English at Emporia State University. She won the Federal Librarian of the Year from the Library of Congress in 2001 while working at Haskell, and the Ted Fleming Teaching Award from Washburn University for teaching excellence. She has published in Tribal College Journal, the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and Yellow Medicine Review. An article on Cherokee rhetoric is forthcoming from American Rhetoric Assn. Journal.

Elizabeth Schultz wrote these fictional stories based on her experiences living on the Hoopa Valley Nation's land during the 1950s, when Bureau of Indian Affairs policies of assimilation were at their height. These stories recover some of the historic experiences of those times. Tribal elders shared their lives with the author as a young woman. Like all good fiction, these stories prompt reflection. Embedded within them are conflicts that most tribal peoples face today--environmental concerns, de-centering cultural influences, and industrialization. Included are 6 historic photographs.

By Denise Low and T. F. Pecore Weso (2004). 128 pp. Perfect bound paper ISBN: 0-9761773-3-1,$15 or hard cover ISBN: 0-9761773-2-3, $25. Order through Mammoth. 68 B&W photographs, family tree, biographical essay, and summary of innovative research sources. Langston Hughes, the great American poet who inspired the Harlem Renaissance, spent most of his childhood (1902-1915) in Lawrence, Ks. This biography includes photos of Lawrence places connected to Hughes. A story emerges of his prominent abolitionist grandparents, Charles and Mary Sampson Langston, who lived in the Lawrence area 1870-1915, and their struggle for education and civil rights. Many buildings from their and Langston Hughes's time survive in Lawrence.

Kansas History Journal writes "The Lawrence of Langston Hughes's boyhood (1902-1915) was not a 'citadel of freedom' and equality for all, but it was a place that impacted the poet/author's life, and "Langston Hughes in Lawrence"--a volume of photographs with extended captions documenting Hughes's life in the community--deserves the attention of anyone interested in Hughes and/or Lawrence, Kansas."

Essays by Denise Low, with photos by George Kren. 124 pp. Perfect bound paper. $12.00. 7 Color and 4 B&W photos. Eighteen essays about Great Plains nature and culture. Thomas Averill writes: “ Low explores a range of interests--from heairweaving the firing the Flint Hills, to her grandmother and the Haskell Indian Nations University Medicine Wheel. For Kansans, and for anyone else interested in exploring the connection of environment, history, and the life of the imagination, Touching the Sky will act as both witness and guide.” Originally published by Penthe Press. Available only through Mammoth. isbn 0-9632475-8-1 1994

PROSE. To Francis: Reminiscences. By Carrie (Strittmatter) Dotson. 36 pp. Staple bound. $5.00. Memoirs of the 1920’s and 1930’s in Newton, Kansas, and 1960’s in McAllen, Texas. A unique view into the thoughts of a woman living in San Antonio, Texas, Colorado, and the Great Plains. Short essays include a 1934 description of travel to the Rockies; a 1918 Armistice parade; childrearing; women’s club life; and neighborhood vignettes. A useful primary source for those interested in Great Plains and women's histories.

The Narrative of John Doy of Lawrence, Kansas: A Plain Unvarnished Tale. Reproduction of the 1860 original book with added history of Lawrence and "Bleeding Kansas." Edited by Mark Volmut. Paperback $12.95. For purchase, contact moonland1@sunflower.com or http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kansaspast/doykan.htm . This adventure story of the pre-Civil War conflict on the Kansas-Missouri border follows John Doy during his heroic experience on the so-called Underground Railroad, the network of abolitionists who spirited enslaved people out of the slave states. Mark Volmut makes available the memoir of one of the men who experienced capture and rescue from a pro-slavery stronghold.