Fiction. Poetry. Drama. Literary Nonfiction. California Interest. Introduction by Anthony Swofford. To an outside observer, north Sacramento, California might seem an unlikely place for a creative writing mecca. The fact that American River College is a state-funded, public education community college might make it seem even more unlikely. And yet American River College has drawn some of the area's most talented creative writers to its halls and has published, for a quarter century, their work in the award-winning American River Review. BURNING THE LITTLE CANDLE, a title borrowed from the poetry of Philip Levine, offers a selection from the work of that creative writing department's faculty and staff including new and previously published work by Lois Ann Abraham, Aaron Bradford, Christian Kiefer, Shane Lipscomb, John Bell, Traci Gourdine, Jason Sinclair Long, Harold Schneider, Michael Angelone, Michael Spurgeon, Rod Siegfried, David Merson, and Emily Hughes. As former American River College student (and Jarhead author) Anthony Swofford writes in his introduction, "go now, read these working and teaching artists. And learn."

Burning the Little Candle: An Anthology of Writing from the Faculty & Staff of American River College's Creative Writing Program

Literature & Fiction

Bell, John

Hughes, Emily

Spurgeon, Michael

Schneider, Harold

Abraham, Lois Ann

Bradford, Aaron

Lipscomb, Shane

Gourdine, Traci

Long, Jason Sinclair

Angelone, Michael

Siegfried, Rod

Merson, David

History & Criticism

Ad Lumen Press

Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Still reeling from the loss of his family in an accident that he feels responsible for causing, Hank Singer accepts an invitation to move to the isolated and beautiful state of Chiapas. There, in the streets and cafes of a colonial city nestled in the mountain forests, he settles into the semblance of a new life under the watchful eye of his best friend and former college roommate, César, the charismatic heir to one of Mexico's most powerful families. But when an army of impoverished Indians calling themselves Zapatistas emerges from the jungle to seize half the state, Hank finds himself a foreigner trapped in someone else's war. The repercussions of the decisions he makes—and does not make—threaten to shatter both his friendship and the renewed life he has found in the Mexican highlands. In the tradition of Graham Greene's The Quiet American and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, LET THE WATER HOLD ME DOWN weaves real historical events into a riveting personal narrative about a man who finds himself caught up in a political landscape beyond his control.

Let the Water Hold Me Down

United States

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Spurgeon, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Spurgeon, Michael