The Precarious Walk

&; Phyllis Barber wields luminous narrative skills to recall
her desert childhood and explore her &;precarious&; spiritual journey. A
latter-day desert-dwelling non-fiction Willa Cather, she roots her loving
family stories in vivid landscape." &; STEPHEN TRIMBLE, author of The Mike File




From a backwoods church in Arkansas to the disappeared town of St. Thomas buried beneath the waters of Lake Mead, award&;winning essayist Phyllis Barber travels roads both internal and external, reflecting upon place and perspective, ambition and loss. Inspired by Flannery O'Connor and David James Duncan, Barber adds a deeply generous and&;true to her high&;desert roots&;down&;to&;earth voice to the illumination of human experience.


PHYLLIS BARBER is an award&;winning author of nine books, including The Desert Between Us, Raw Edges, and How I Got Cultured. Winner of the AWP Prize for Creative Nonfiction, she has published essays and short stories in North American Review, Crazyhorse, and Kenyon Review. She has been cited as Notable in The Best American Essays and The Best American Travel Writing. In 2005, Barber was inducted into the Nevada Writers' Hall of Fame. Barber has taught at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and the University of Utah's Osher Institute. She lives in Park City, Utah.