Prairie Gold

In the shadow of World War I, the writers and artists of Iowa's small towns came together to create something that would outlast the conflict tearing the world apart. "Prairie Gold" is their answer to darkness: a collection of poems and prose that turns the eye westward, toward the amber waves and endless sky of the Hawkeye State. Here are local legends passed down through generations, the particular slant of light across cornfields at dusk, and the quiet heroism of people who stay and those who leave. The collection pulses with fierce local pride, but also with the ache of knowing that the boys marching off to war may never see these same fields again. This is regional literature at its most heartfelt, written before "regional" became a category, when writers simply wrote about the place they knew and the people they loved. For readers who crave authentic American voices from a forgotten era, who want to feel the specific weight of Midwestern landscape and community, "Prairie Gold" offers both comfort and elegy.