Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West

by Linda M. Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier (Editor), Nancy Curtis (Editor)

A “blessedly unromantic” portrait of real women’s lives in the contemporary American West (Kathleen Norris).   This wide-ranging collection of essays and poetry reveals the day-to-day lives and experiences of a diverse collection of women in the western United States, from Buddhists in Nebraska to Hutterites in South Dakota to “rodeo moms.” A woman chooses horse work over housework; neighbors pull together to fight a raging wildfire; a woman rides a donkey across Colorado to raise money after the tragedy at Columbine. Women recall harmony found at a drugstore, at a powwow, in a sewing circle. Lively, heartfelt, urgent, enduring, Crazy Woman Creek celebrates community—connections built or strengthened by women that unveil a new West.  

Genres: Nonfiction, Womens, Westerns, Short Stories

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Linda M. Hasselstrom is an award-winning poet and writer of the High Plains whose work is rooted in the arid landscape of southwestern South Dakota. She writes, ranches, and conducts writing retreats on the South Dakota ranch homesteaded by her grandfather, a Swedish cobbler, in 1899.

Her website, www.windbreakhouse.com, provides details about her writing retreats, online consulting and her published poetry and nonfiction.

Contact her at info@windbreakhouse.com

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this collection of essays, poems, and short stories, women writers from 21 western states and Canada reframe the myth of the western woman as crazy, sketchy, or heathen. Editors Linda M Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier, and Nancy Curtis have assembled fine examples of authors who present the modern western woman as human and humane, neither weak nor crazy.

The anthology goes beyond the myth of simple women tending the stove while men do the work. It shows women who do both: the branding, the haying, the fencing and tend the stove and mend the wounds and torn clothes. The stories encompass women who were raised by generations of western women before them as well as women who've migrated from more urbane childhoods. Taken together, the stories weave a tapestry of women joining communities and building communities where they don't yet exist. The women in these pages face the unknown, be it death, another day without a drink, telling a story before a storytelling group, or embracing a neighbor of a "foreign" religion, with caution and with grace. Distance makes independence mandatory and cooperation and sharing precious.
Crazy Woman Creek is a great book to savor one or two stories at a time.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of essays exploring the community of women in the west. Another great collection by these editors. Many I read with a tear in my eye, some feeling hopefuly, some feeling angered that women can be so cruel to one another; I laughed at many of the stories; I felt a bond with the other women of the west - and wished for a community of my own, and thought about making some casseroles for my neighbors.

[Billye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book grabs you right away with sincerity and reality--more to follow when I finish-good for short reads

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful compilation of stories and poetry from western women. Thank you Andrea for this collection!!!