Stars Scattered Like Seeds [Paperback]

Jeanne Shannon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2002

A collection of short stories, poems and memoirs recalling life in the Appalachian South (southwestern Virginia) in the mid-twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeanne Shannon has published poetry, short fiction, personal essays, and journalism in a variety of small-press and university publications. She has published eleven volumes of poetry, including most recently a collection published in Tokyo in a bilingual English-Japanese edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Wildflower Press (October 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971434352
• ISBN-13: 978-0971434356
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,180,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeanne Shannon grew up on Southwest Virginia, what some call "the heart of the Appalachian South," and that region still provdes inspiration for her creative work. She earned a bachelor's degree in education (majors in music and French) at Radford University (Radford College, it was then, 1956), and a master's degree in English/Creative Writing at the University of New Mexico in 1983. Her poetry, memoir pieces and short fiction have appeared in numerous small-press and university publications. She has published four full-length collections of her work and several chapbooks. When she retired from a career as a technical writer in 2000, she started a home-based business--a book-publishing enterprise called The Wildflower Press--in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Her favorite authors include Southern fiction writer Lee Smith, poets Charles Wright, C.D. Wright, and Ronald Johnson, and novelists Virginia Woolf and Eudora Welty. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Lee Smith's Fair and Tender Ladies are among her favorite novels. She also likes to read books on quantum physics and spirituality, and to explore how those two fields are related.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely Collage of Stories and Poems, February 5, 2003

By 

Maryhelen Snyder (Vienna, Virginia, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stars Scattered Like Seeds (Paperback)

Jeanne Shannon's "Stars Scattered like Seeds": is a marvelous collection of stories and poems about a childhood in Appalachian Virginia. I kept imagining how well this book would serve to inspire classes in high school and college to write actual, fictionalized, or lyrical memoir capturing the intense emotions and sensual aliveness of the young. The format of the book is itself a pleasure, with pages full of white space, and poetry and song intermingled with prose. Shannon's work is beautifully crafted. I found myself re-reading her first and last sentences as invariably perfect examples of how to get a reader immediately involved, and then imaginatively released. Shannon's style and content are inseparable. Her chapter on "Cocoa Fudge," for example, is so sensuously captivating that I may never be able to read a recipe again without consciousness of the poetry in the simple listing of ingredients and what to do with them. And she uses the making of fudge to tell a sensitive story of early romance and sexuality. Humor and pathos are touchingly combined throughout.

3.0 out of 5 stars Spirtual Reflections, December 5, 2004

By 

Skylar Hamilton Burris "Skylar" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stars Scattered Like Seeds (Paperback)

This book interweaves poetry with short fiction and creative memoir. It focuses on the author's native culture, which is rooted in the southern Appalachian Mountains and subject to inescapable Baptist influences. This world is related to the reader through the eyes of narrator Audrey Yates, and the stories possesses a poetic quality. Some of the poet's verse, however, relies too heavily on disembodied imagery, although many of her poems succeed in creating a powerful picture.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book of Depth and Beauty, March 26, 2003

By 

NM Serenity (New Mexico) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stars Scattered Like Seeds (Paperback)

I love "Stars Scattered Like Seeds". Gently, but with pinpoint accuracy, Jeanne Shannon draws the characters of her Appalachian childhood and meticulously crafts these wonderful narratives and poems. Amongst the pages are scattered an occasional bit of music, a sketch, a photo. They are like finding an extra chocolate chip in an already delectable cookie.

This is a book to be savored. I planned to read it in one or two sittings, but it's impossible. I find myself immersed in a tale, going back to reread bits of it, closing my eyes to visualize a character, to feel their emotions, to smell the smells and hear the sounds of the story. Often something will trigger a memory of my own childhood and send me onto a path of remembrance. Jeanne Shannon's writing beautifully shows us how varied and complex are the threads that weave the tapestry of our lives. It is a wonderful work and I highly recommend it.