Finding a Place in the Natural World

Reviving Artemis is the unlikely story of a woman raised in mid-twentieth-century suburbia, then lived in New York City as a young adult, and moved to Vermont in 1984. For more than thirty years, she raised domestic livestock, kept bees, and cultivated fruits and vegetables while teaching literature and telling stories. But when she turned sixty, something shifted. Luskin was overtaken by a primal urge to step out of the garden, off the blazed trails, and into untracked forest by learning to hunt deer.

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Could there be two people more different?

It’s 1964, and Rose Mayer is recently widowed, a Democrat, and Jewish. When she meets Percy Mendell, a born and bred Vermonter, who has never married and never voted for a Democrat, they clash before a surprising romance springs up, challenging all of the status quos. At age 64, they both must employ their humor, wit and compassion to even consider the other. Set against the backdrop of Vermont’s changing season and voraciously opinionated population, Into the Wilderness is both a love story and a testament to the surprising flexibility of the human heart.

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Deborah Lee Luskin

Deborah Lee Luskin

Deborah Lee Luskin moved from New York City to Vermont in 1984 to write, garden, keep bees, and raise daughters. Luskin has been an editorial columnist, radio commentator, pen-for-hire, and blogger. Her first novel, Into the Wilderness, won the Independent Publishers Gold Medal for Regional Fiction. Luskin has also enjoyed a long career as an educator, teaching writing and literature-based humanities to gifted elementary writers, college students, new adult readers, life-long learners, healthcare workers, and prison inmates. She holds a PhD in English Literature and expected to become an academic, not a deer hunter. She lives in Vermont with her husband, their dog, usually a cat, and a variable number of chickens.

Living In Place

Winter Arrives

Every Day Outdoors, 1/17/24  "Bright, white daylight. Insinuating wind. Skiing across the fields, both sweating and chilled. It feels as if winter has finally arrived."  I broke a ski trail across the fields outside my back door yesterday. Glorious. I plan to get out...

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Outside Every Day

In mid-December, I had this idea to go outside every day, no matter the time, no matter the weather. It wasn’t to do anything in particular, except to be outdoors, feel the air in my lungs and on my face, taste the weather, attune myself to the natural world. Wary of...

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Back on the Trail

Christmas Day Hike on Black Mountain With no snow on the ground, we decided on a Christmas Day hike up Black Mountain. It’s a short, five-and-a-half mile loop to 1,250 feet just six miles from home, and in all these years, we’d never hiked it. We’d always opted for...

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