Stories from Sherwood Anderson Country: Contest Winners, 1976-1986, and: Mud River (review)

I grab the gilt-edged handle, stand up, and hurl the gravy boat at the wall." Mandy fully expects to be punished, but her act meets with silence. The reason for this becomes clear later on, when, on a trip arranged by her parents as a reward for helping with Willie, she spends Christmas in Memphis with her grandparents. As family stories are told, Mandy gains a greater understanding of the family constellation-and of the role she has played. Mandy will come back to Goose Rock-as each of us returns again and again to the place of our beginning-with new insights, more compassion and increased understanding of herself and others. Even in the brief excerpts quoted above, you can sense author Lyon's economical but eloquent use of language . Lyon, who is also an accomplished poet, is a skillful phrase-maker. A neighbor's hair is seen ' swarming out of its knot." A dinner roll is "light as a baby's breath." In Memphis, Mandy finds "the sun doesn't have to strain to get over mountains . . . everything feels Hght and free, like the day you peel off your winter underwear." Besides Borrowed Children, Lyon (who has a Ph.D in creative writing from Indiana University) has written two picture books for children and is at work on a second novel, entitled Red Rover, Red Rover. She's the author of "Braids," a play which has been produced in several theatres and is scheduled to be broadcast by Weku-Fm this year. Lyon and her husband, Steve, a muscian , live in Lexington with their two young sons, Ben and Joey. -Carol Collier Anderson, Hubert H. and Charles H. Modlin, editors. Stories from Sherwood Anderson Country: Contest Winners, 1976-1986. Marian, Virginia: Sherwood Anderson Association, 1987. Hardback, $12.00. Ayyildiz, Judy Light. Mud River. Roanoke, Virginia: Lintel, 1987. Paperback , $8.95. Ten years' worth of winners includes short stories by familiar authors such as Parks Lanier, Richard Lawson, John Caldwell, Judy K. Miller, and Sharyn McCrumb, plus works from many newcomers of all ages. From eighth graders to "Edgar" winners, these authors share the common bond of writing about the Virginia mountains for a competition which honors Sherwood Anderson. Many of the stories also appeared elsewhere -in Appalachian Heritage, Suffolk Magazine, Harvest from the Hills-anà the "Notes on Authors" section is a delightful mix of high school and college students, teachers, and even a chiropractor . This is a strong collection, surprisingly cohesive for a ten-year assortment of contest winners, a pleasure to read. This is Judy Light Ayyildiz's third book of poetry, an intriguing collection described by William Packard as "plain style, pure lyric sounds of memory in taut lines, rural detail images, no false word choices, no rhetoric, no fake, 'poetry.'" An example: Gracie smoked a corncob pipe. She'd sit on the old back porch, shaded from the afternoon sun her bonnet like a drooping violet hung by a nail on the door. I sat on the steps to watch how she'd puff and look out over tomatoes and cabbage, sweet Williams and dahlias. I know she was a three-hundred pound saint, soft and smelling like cucumbers on the vine. "Gracie" is my favorite. A few poems are done in a broken, staggered cadence which I find distracting to read67 "Your bra smells like cider scab" -but these lines from "Addicted" surely will appeal to any writer: I'll get it out any way I can: beat it out of a ribbon, Squeeze it from a machine, lie with it late at night dried-out, hoping for resurrection. -Garry Barker Garza, Amy. Retter. Nashville, Tennessee : Winston-Derek Publishers, Inc., 1988. Amy Garza dreamed that her grandfather asked that she write down stories he had told her about her grandmother. She couldn't get it out of her mind and became convinced she must do as directed in the dream. The result is Retter, a believable and sympathetic book which reflects Ms. Garza's ability to listen with her heart. Retter Coggins Ammons, born in the late 1800s, lived all her life in the mountains of North Carolina, near Tuckaseegee . She learned...