My first novel, Hardpan, published August 1st 2015

Exciting news: my first novel, Hardpan, was published August 1st by Westerly Directions Press. E-books are now available from Apple iBooks: https://itun.es/us/fwu48.I and Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/, as well as online from B&N Nook. Print books will also be available soon.

Set in Clark, Wyoming in the mid-1950s, Hardpan tells the journey of a young ranch family grappling with the changing American West after World War II. After returning from the war to manage the family ranch in eastern Oregon, Kurt Glover confronts familial challenges to his new role. Yet, Kurt’s decision to relocate his family to a remote cattle ranch in Wyoming introduces risks to his young family that he never imagined.

“Marilyn Skinner Lanier’s first novel ‘Hardpan’ reveals her deep understanding of the vicissitudes of life in rural Wyoming for the Glover family in the 1950s as economic conditions, the weather, and human frailty lead them from one difficulty to the next. Her resilient and well-drawn characters, however, show what it takes to overcome the hardships they face and survive with strength and endurance. They are to be admired as is Lanier for so wisely probing the human heart and family devotion. Her writing is vivid, nuanced, and alive.”

– Maxine Chernoff, Chair of the Creative Writing Program at San Francisco State University, author of 6 books of fiction and 14 books of poetry, winner of an NEA Fellowship and the PEN Translation Prize

The ranch house along bluff of Clarks Fork River, a tributary of the Yellowstone

The ranch house along bluff of the Clarks Fork River, a tributary of the Yellowstone

An early version of the book cover for Hardpan. Photo of our family's pickup used in move from Wyoming to Central California in 1957.

An early version of the book cover for Hardpan.

My son, Matt Silas, receives director's award for his short film, The Fence, based on a chapter from my novel, Hardpan

UCLA Film Festival 2008. My son, Matt Silas, receives director’s award for his short film, The Fence, based on a chapter from my novel, Hardpan

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