Series: Northwest Voices Essay Series | Publication Date: July 1996
In Landscape of the Heart, Stephen J. Lyons writes of a five-year period following a divorce when he and his young daughter Rose serch for new meanings in their lives and their relationship. This quiet work of healing is both painful and joyful as Stephen and Rose discover the West together. These essays and poems confirm the existence of an internal "landscape" that responds to birds on the wing, mountain lakes, big skies, and dense forests - a landscape of the heart.
"These are the moments I am moving in," writes Lyons. "As I get older, I lean more and more toward these small pockets of the obvious and the mysterious that rise from the landscape, surround memories, and enhance a sense of possibilities. This is also where I am leading my daughter during the short years of our time together."
"Lyons writes passionately and eloquently about coming of age...He understands the uses of love. His is good work." -- William Kittredge
"Mr. Lyon's prose reads like poetry and has the effect of a lingering memory of love." -- Terry Tempest Williams
About the Author
Since coming West twenty years ago, Stephen J. Lyons has been employed in six different states as a tree planter, daffodil picker, dude ranch cook, ice cream vendor, magazine editor, newspaper reporter, tofu maker, grain truck driver, assistant dairy herdsman, and agricultural extension editor. His essays, poems, and articles have appeared in many publications, including The Detroit Free Press Sunday Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Utne Reader, Northern Lights, High Country News, The Sun, and Manoa.
Product Details
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Washington State University (July 1996)
Stephen J. Lyons is the author of three books of non fiction: "Landscape of the Heart," "A View from the Inland Northwest," and "The 1,000-Year Flood: Destruction, Loss, Rescue, and Redemption along the Mississippi River."
Commenting on A View from the Inland Northwest, Bill McKibben wrote, "The landscape of the interior west is so magnificent that it usually dwarfs all other impressions. But Stephen Lyons is a fine writer, a fine observer, and a fine neighbor--this book carries the stamp of authenticity on every page and will engage both visitor and resident of the region."
Regarding A Landscape of the Heart, Terry Tempest Williams wrote, "Stephen Lyons has offered us his grace and compassion through Landscape of the Heart. These essays are the deliberations of a sensitive, intuitive mind, a mind not afraid of exploring regions of the heart, so often sidestepped by men. Through his observations we are challenged and inspired to look more deeply at the world around us. Mr. Lyons' prose reads like poetry and the effect of a lingering memory of love."
William Kittredge wrote, "Stephen J. Lyons writes passionately and eloquently about coming of age, as we must, again and again. He understands the uses of love. His is good work."
In a review of "The 1,000-Year Flood: Destruction, Loss, Rescue, and Redemption along the Mississippi River," Chuck Leddy described this book of narrative journalism as "gripping" and "nuanced." He called Lyons "a gifted reporter."
Stephen's writings have been published in more than a dozen anthologies and his byline has appeared in Newsweek, Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, CASE Currents, Reason, Psychotherapy Networker, Salon, Audubon, USA Today, and dozens more. He has reviewed books for a number of newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and Minneapolis Star Tribune.
In 2002 and in 2006 he was awarded an Illinois Arts Council fellowship for prose writing. Stephen was nominated for a Pushcart Award in 2001 for an essay that appeared The Sun.
This August his latest book "The 1,000-Year Flood: Destruction, Loss, Rescue, and Redemption along the Mississippi River" was published.
To contact Stephen regarding appearances and assignments please use this email address: sjlyons@hotmail.com
This review is from: Landscape of the Heart: Writings on Daughters and Journeys (Northwest Voices Essay Series) (Paperback)
Every time I happen upon a magazine article written by Lyons I read it, no matter the subject. He is one of my favorite freelancer/contributers around. Always a keen, insightful and oftentimes happily cynical view on things. A writer I can trust, or buy a used car from. His writing in this book is just as good, and the subject - a single father, his daughter, the land the nurtures them both - is very relevant to me - also a father with young children to whom I hope to pass on a love of the land. Great job, Stephen!
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