Reviving Artemis: The Making of a Huntress

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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Into the Wilderness

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

Walking Back In Time

Climbing to altitude is like walking back in time.I dwell in a valley 1,000 feet above sea level, where spring is greening into summer.Even before the snow left the ground, we pruned the fruit trees and berry bushes. Wearing hats and fleece, we replanted the fence and...

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The Middle in Middle Age

The “Middle” in middle ages refers to both the growth of one’s middle and being between the generation that spawned you and the one you raised yourself. Attempts to control the growth of one’s waistline is a Sisyphean task that requires eating less, exercising more,...

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Hang the Laundry

Hang the Laundry

My thirty-year old clothes dryer bit the dust last week, leaving me no choice but to hang the laundry out to dry.We bought this appliance when we bought our first house and in anticipation of using cloth diapers.Ew, you say? Consider the alternatives: We lived twenty...

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