Susan Neville is a native Hoosier and professor of English and creative writing at Butler University. Her books include Indiana Winter (IUP, 1994), Falling Toward Grace: Images of Religion and Culture from the Heartland (edited with J. Kent Calder) (IUP, 1998), and Iconography: A Writer's Meditation (IUP, 2003). She is also on the faculty of the Warren Wilson Program for Writers in North Carolina. She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.

• ContentsIntroduction1. On the Banks of Lost River2. Where the Landscape Moved Like Waves: An Interview with Marguerite Young3. River of Spirit: An Interview with Dan Wakefield4. Sacred Space in Ordinary Time5. Quaker Zen: On Jessamyn West's Friendly Persuasion6. Vonnegut: An Interview with Kurt Vonnegut7. Free Singers/Be: On Etheridge Knight8. On Wildness and Domesticity: An Interview with Scott Russell Sanders9. The Gospel According to Lish10. Imagination11. On Being Fierce12. Monopoly Houses: On John McPhee's In Search of Marvin Gardens13. Sailing the Sea in New Harmony Indiana: On Digression in Creative Nonfiction14. Driving Famous Writers Around I46515. Leaping Across the Canyon: On Writing16. Where's Iago?17. Saturation: On Climate, Politics, and Sex in Magic Mountain and Snow Country(or the Ballad of the S.A.D. Café)18. Time Capsules: On Time in Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop19. The Apprenticeship of Flannery O'Connor20. The Gift of Fire: A Meditation on Art and Madness21. On Common Ground: Indiana Literature and the Land22. The Economy of Peace

"A native Hoosier, Neville celebrates place and her home state's considerable contributions to the literary world. The essays are eclectic, engaging, and entertaining. . . . Highly recommended for all libraries with large collections on creative writing and for all libraries in the Midwest."—Library Journal"What makes this book one that I would certainly put on my reading list is that Neville explores writing—and the study of writing—in interesting and tangible ways."—Sue William Silverman, author of Love Sick