Main Street Books recently announced the return of their Ohio Author Reading Series with a book talk and signing by Richard Gilbert. Gilbert wrote the book “Shepherd: a Memoir” about his quest to create an Ohio farm in the tradition of Louis Bromfield, his childhood idol.
About the book:
Shepherd covers a decade in the lives of Richard Gilbert and his wife, academics who move to Appalachian Ohio in 1996 with two small children.
They’re charmed by the region’s quirky character and untamed beauty, and thrilled to learn there are still places in America that haven’t been homogenized. But they suffer culture shock as they try to put down roots.
They hemorrhage money rebuilding a house; mysterious illnesses plague their new sheep flock; injuries bedevil the novice shepherd; he’s fleeced buying equipment. And Gilbert, haunted by his father’s loss of his boyhood farm, struggles to earn money in sustainable agriculture.
As a local acquaintance says, “It weren’t easy.”
But gradually the couple fall in love with their new home, feuding neighbors and all. Gilbert’s prose captures the landscape’s lyrical beauty and the region’s stubborn essence. This story of one man’s transformation on the land is embedded in a dramatic narrative that captures the mythic pull and the practical difficulty of family-scale sustainable farming.
About the author:
Richard Gilbert, the author of “Shepherd: A Memoir,” teaches writing at Otterbein University. He holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goucher College. A former journalist, Gilbert also was marketing manager of Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. His essays have appeared in Brevity; Fourth Genre; Orion; River Teeth, and Utne Reader.
The event will be held Friday, May 1 from 6- 8 p.m. at Main Street Books, located at 104 North Main Street, Mansfield.
