Description: "News of [an] open-pit mining project disrupts the remote Alaskan town of Whetstone Cove as the whole community becomes divided over where everyone stands. Meanwhile, Alan hopes to win the beautiful widow Dehlia Melven over, despite her passive stance on the mine"--
Brief description: Anne Coray is a writer and poet, authoring three poetry collections and coediting an anthology. Her work has appeared in the Southern Review, North American Review, and in several anthologies. She has been nominated five times for the Pushcart prize and received fellowships from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation. Anne divides her time between remote Lake Clark and Homer in Alaska.
Review Quotes:
"This beautifully written novel and its descriptive narrative totally encapsulate the small Alaskan town of Whetstone Cove and its residents. The characters literally jump from the pages; they are both engaging and possess many interesting layers. . . The novel highlighted the beauty of nature, the importance of caring for the environment, and the results of humanity's greed for money and power."
--Readers' Favorite
"Coray's tale will engage anyone interested in the continued mining debate, the Green Movement, and the consequences of irreversible land damage and climate change. Gripping and captivating, emotional and poetic, with its implicit nods to the philosophies of John Muir and the photography of Ansel Adams, this book stands tall like the Alaskan alders and spruces. It's a page-turner, sure to keep readers guessing and engaged from the first page until the very last."
--US Review of Books
"Lost Mountain, by Homer and Lake Clark writer Anne Coray, is a book from the geographic heart of the biggest Alaska mining controversy of the 21st century--so far. . . In this novel, she has created a community of creative spirits, an arts and crafts village which has many of the same concerns as Native villages in the region. . . I care about her characters; her natural history observations are both sweet and sharp."
--Peninsula Clarion/Homer News
"Terrific, a wonder--not only a strong story but filled with nature, with knowledge of the seasons, plants and creatures. And people--memorable characters. Lost Mountain is a testament to faith and love."
--William Heyen, author of Shoah Train
"Anne Coray's Lost Mountain is pure Alaska gold. Lost Mountain captures all the nuances and complexities of what it's like trying to live an idyllic life in a land rife with competing interests and struggles. In this beautiful debut novel, Coray reveals important truths about what is worth fighting for in both love and life."
--Don Rearden, author of The Raven's Gift
"When we hear in the news that some giant mine is going to open in interior Alaska, it's hard to understand what that means-reading this fine novel makes it easy to figure out why ripping open our last wild places is such a sad, consequential decision."
--Bill McKibben
"With a deft combination of complex characters and environmental reality, Lost Mountain explores how the looming prospect of a mine envelops the lives and relationships of a fictional artists' community. Coray examines the cost of compromise and the sustainability of love."
--Erin Mckittrick, author of A Long Trek Home
Praise for the previous works of Anne Coray:
For Violet Transparent:
"Poet Anne Coray shares intimate moments and experiences from her life through her poetry. Love, loss, nature, aging, triumphs and setbacks... and all with a skillful touch and in ways that readers can relate to and feel a part of."
--Geraldine Helen Hartman, author of the Haiku Reflections series
For Crosscurrents North: Alaskans on the Environment:
"[Crosscurrents North: Alaskans on the Environment] is an important book. Not only for the wisdom it contains, the challenges to take care of this vast, last chance of wild perfection, but also as a treasure trove of fine writing by Alaskans themselves."
--Wayne Mergler
For A Measure's Hush:
"Much like W.S. Merwin, the meditative tone of Anne Coray's A Measure's Hush provides simple, slowly revealed images of death, life, and aged renewal."
--Joel E. Jacobson, Englewood Review of Books
For Bone Strings:
"Anne Coray's poems in Bone Strings emanate with an intuitive sense of the Alaskan wilderness where she grew up. As one who is intimate with landscape, she is able to bypass the tendency to conceive wilderness as a pristine, magical