The poems in this collection, drawn from Omanson's rural midwestern heritage and shaped by the regionalist/naturalistic tradition of American poetry, were written over a period of some thirty-five years. They first appeared in such literary journals as Shenandoah, The Hudson Review, The Sewanee Review and the Academy of American Poets anthology series, New Voices. Born four days after the death of Edgar Lee Masters, BJ Omanson was raised in the Spoon River valley of Stark County, Illinois, where his father, both grandfathers and several great-grandfathers had farmed since the mid-nineteenth century, and where members of his family still farm today.