Collected Stories and Elizabeth’s Field are set on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Rhodesdale, MD ̶ Barbara Lockhart is pleased to announce the release of Collected Stories on July 4, 2020. Also on that date, the award-winning author from Dorchester County will re-launch her historical novel titled Elizabeth’s Field. Both books are published by Secant Publishing in Salisbury, Maryland.
Suffused with lyricism and sensitive to the human condition, in Collected Stories Lockhart captures the flavor of small town and rural Eastern Shore in Maryland. The tone is set with the first story, “Beginning with Puckum,” which finds Christmas angels detaching themselves from lampposts on Main Street and rendering a bird’s eye view of a typical small town. The symbolism is found in the stories that follow as the author imbues her character studies with impressive depth and insight. One of the chapters is called “Crab Feast” which is truly an Eastern Shore tradition. Originally published under the title The Night is Young, Collected Stories has been updated with new material including five previously unpublished stories.
Elizabeth’s Field is the story of the free black population living in Dorchester County, Maryland, the birthplace and home county of Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman, in the years just prior to the Civil War. The main character, Elizabeth, is a free black woman who owns 22 acres in a time when free blacks and the enslaved lived in continuous tension and uncertainty about their futures. Elizabeth’s story and that of Sam Green, the local minister who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possessing a copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, attest to the turmoil that wracked the Eastern Shore. Originally published in 2012, Elizabeth’s Field is being re-released at a time when issues of racial inequality and justice are again at the forefront of the national agenda and interest in African American history is high.
Kathryn Lang, former editor of Southern Methodist University Press, gave this review: “Elizabeth’s Field captures the realities of pre-Civil War life on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and creates characters that struggle in extraordinary adversity. Lockhart traces the branches of several generations of black families, their histories merging, the memories of their grandparents’ miseries facing yet not forgotten. Her carefully limned descriptions of the land—the profusion of flora and the turning of the seasons—are masterful. Through fully rounded characters and lyrical prose, Lockhart’s novel teaches some hard lessons about man’s inhumanity to man.”
Commenting on Collected Stories and Elizabeth’s Field, Lockhart said, “I’m thrilled to offer my updated Collected Storieswhich are set on the Eastern Shore because I love the small town life. The re-release of Elizabeth’s Field is very timely considering what is going on in the world today. In researching the history of my farm, I learned about the woman who owned it in the 1850s. That information, coupled with an oral history from my neighbor, inspired me to write a fictional account of the people who lived here before the Civil War.”
Author-signed print books are available for pre-order and pick up on July 4, 2020 at these fine area bookstores:
- Book Bin in Onley, VA – bookbinva.com/
- Sundial Books in Chincoteague, VA – www.sundialbooks.net/
- The Greyhound – An Indie Bookstore in Berlin, MD – www.greyhoundbookstore.com/
Lockhart’s eBooks are available now on Amazon with print books available on July 4, 2020.
The following online retailers also carry Elizabeth’s Field:
Children’s books by Barbara Lockhart may be found at World of Toys and The Greyhound in Berlin, Maryland as well as the Sundial in Chincoteague, VA.
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About Barbara Lockhart
