Spring Drive: A North Country Tale

– by Chuck Guilford

“ . . . a splendid job and the book was deeply engrossing, with that whole feeling of spring thaw.” — Jim Harrison

“Guilford’s (Paradigm, 2006, etc.) use of multiple points-of-view gives the reader a wider scope for the action . . . his prose is appropriately quick-moving, since the narrative stakes are so high. Guilford also retains period slang and dialect, providing for a richer reading experience . . . An action-packed morality tale.” — Kirkus Discoveries Review

“This true historical event is brought alive by Guilford’s fictional portrayal of the characters, particularly through the tight, fast-paced dialogue and the psychological portraits of the inner turmoil that motivates their actions. . . .While Guilford does not spend a great deal of time on description, he includes enough information to make 1881 Menominee appear very vivid.” — Tyler Tichelaar, Marquette Monthly

Set in Menominee, Michigan, in 1881 and based on an historical event, Spring Drive centers on the McDonald boys, two loggers who roll into town planning to collect their pay, have some fun, and leave for Oregon. Before they can do so, however, they are caught up in a violent swirl of events that leads to their lynching. It is a gripping, even terrifying tale. In telling the story, the book probes a complex web of environmental, social, and personal issues which remain important in today’s America.

Read the first eleven pages.

About the Author

Chuck Guilford is an emeritus English professor at Boise State University, where he taught literature and creative writing for 23 years and founded BSU’s Idaho Writers Archive. He is the creator of two writing websites, Paradigm Online Writing Assistant and poetryexpress.org.

His poems, short stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, including Poetry, Kansas Quarterly, Coyote’s Journal, College English, Weber Studies, Redneck Review of Literature, Crab Creek Review, Inland, and many other magazines and literary journals. He is also a winner of the Western Literature Association's Willa Cather Memorial Award (the Willa Pilla).

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