Illinois Authors

University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Mo. : ©2000.

In Brier Country, Elaine Fowler Palencia returns to Blue Valley, the fictional locale in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Kentucky that is the focus of her highly acclaimed Small Caucasian Woman. Blue Valley is a small community—a town where little goes on

FutureCycle Press 2015

In GOING PLACES, Elaine Fowler Palencia’s third poetry chapbook, she continues to explore the themes of her two collections of Appalachian fiction: identity rooted in place and family, exile and return, childhood, and lost Edens. Grounded in history and the western literary tradition, these poems bring together imagery from fairy tales, the Civil War, bluegrass music, spectral visits, Abraham Lincoln, mountaintop removal, regional speech, and Greek statuary to make surprising connections. The poetry is imbued with the grace, gentle irony, humor, and social concern of her distinctive storyteller's voice.

Main Street Rag Press 2020

Berkley, New York : 1984.

Mercer University Press 2021

When John M. Douthit of Appalachian Georgia enlisted as a private in Fannin County's 52nd Volunteer Infantry Regiment on March 4, 1862 and marched with neighbors to train at Camp McDonald, he left behind a pregnant wife, an eighteen-month-old daughter, and a small farm. A precious cache of family letters traces him to eastern Tennessee, where he served south of Cumberland Gap; through the failed Confederate invasion of Kentucky; on the march to join Bragg's forces near Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and finally, to the defense of Vicksburg, where John and his fellow North Georgians arrived during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. At Vicksburg, where John's younger brother Warren Davis Douthit joined him, five North Georgia regiments solidified into what became known as the Barton-Stovall Brigade. The Brigade manned the water batteries at Warrenton, Mississippi, fought in the Battle of Champion Hill, and afterward was bottled up in the siege of Vicksburg.

University of Missouri Press, Columbia : ©1993.

Short stories from the lives of the residents of Blue Valley, a small town in eastern Kentucky.

Berkley/Jove Pub. Group, New York, NY : 1982.

Berkley, New York : 1983.

Nicole Starr had managed the Seawinds boutique on Silver Cay ever since the death of her husband. For five years she had devoted herself to her work, unmoved by the romance of the Bahama resort or the attentions of men.Then Grant Sutton, self-styled efficiency expert and notorious womanizer, sweeps in with the force of a tropical storm. His arrogant business tactics endanger Nicole's job, while his persistent charm threatens to awaken her long-sleeping emotions. Though she vows to resist the elemental power of his passion, her heart begins to feel the undertow of overwhelming desire...

Grex Press, Middletown, Ky. : 1997.

Palencia's first collection of poignant poems about being the mother of a son with severe intellectual and physical disabilities.

Grex Press 2002

This poetry collection about living with a child who has severe mental and physical disabilities "succeeds brilliantly, capturing moments of doubt, weariness, and above all a special kind of love, born of reverence for humanity of her incomprehensible son and the sanctity of their everyday life together."