Books in the Voices in the American West series

Amy Hale Auker's first book of essays, Rightful Place, was the story of awoman finding beauty in her place, the Llano Estacado. Her new collection of creative non-fiction, Ordinary Skin, explores her mid-life transition with prose poems and essays that illustrate a new terrain as well as new ways of being in the world.

Michael Ventura's owned only one car his entire life: a green '69 Chevy Malibu. Its wheels have crisscrossed the American landscape over more miles than a round trip to the moon. His essays convey a tactile and intimate relationship with land and people - and of course the car. In this collection the essays switch lanes with Hancock's evocative black-and-white photographs.