FICTION
MONARCHS OF THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM
by CHERA HAMMONS
“Chera Hammons writes fiction with the same lyricism that makes her poetry shine. Every sentence sings with grace and music.
— RICHARD KRAWIEC, author of Time Sharing
Anna and her husband John, a master saddlemaker, have created a quiet existence for themselves in rural Vermont. When John disappears in the woods near their home, Anna hides what she finds there in a desperate effort to ensure her own survival. She must learn to live alone in a landscape where poachers trespass, coyotes roam, bears menace livestock, and winter starves the wild animals—while debilitating illness and long-buried secrets threaten to upturn her life.
August 2020| Fiction | 978-1-948814-21-8 | 268 pp | $16.95
PRAISE FOR MONARCHS OF THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM
“Lush and evocative . . . A highly satisfying, delicately woven story about loss, loneliness, life, and death.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Infused with the hypnotic tone of a dream and the rich evocation of place . . . utterly affecting.”
—LIAM DURCAN, author of The Measure of Darkness
“Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is particularly memorable for its close reading of the ways of animals, and for its evocation of place: a would-be pristine winter kingdom continually threatened by human arrogance, carelessness, and greed. This is an astonishingly mature first novel, suspenseful, haunted—and haunting—from start to finish.”
—A. G. MOJTABAI, author of Shine on Me
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“Ominous from its opening image—blood marring cozy domesticity—Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is a haunting beauty. Hammons's prose is tight as tripwire. A quiet madness unfolds and the narrative forces the reader to look and see what the most fragile among us are capable of. Her characters, both human and not, will be with me a long time.”
— KELLY SOKOL, author of The Unprotected
“Chera Hammons writes fiction with the same lyricism that makes her poetry shine. Every sentence sings with grace and music. Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is a book you don't read so much as savor.”
— RICHARD KRAWIEC, author of Time Sharing
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"An intimate portrait of one woman's grief and journey towards self-sufficiency . . . raw, emotional, and poignant. Hammons rules over the pen, writing with a deep and honest understanding of the complexity of human emotion and psyche."
— BURROWING OWL BOOKS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHERA HAMMONS holds an MFA from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, and serves as writer-in-residence at West Texas A&M University. The author of four books of poetry, including Maps of Injury and the 2017 Southwest Book Award winner The Traveler’s Guide to Bomb City, she lives near Amarillo, Texas, with her husband, three cats, a dog, a rabbit, a donkey, and five horses.
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