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.
Available at:
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.
Available at:
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
Hiking the Chilkoot Trail
Several readers have requested advice about hiking the Chilkoot Trail. The Chilkoot is a 33-mile hiking trail from Alaska to Canada that an estimated 70,000 gold prospectors used during the great Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1898. Most of the prospectors left from the...
Solving The Emissions Equation
I was looking forward to attending a Map & Compass workshop in northern Vermont on a recent Sunday, but when I realized the 125-mile trip meant a six hour drive, I spent some time solving the Emissions Equation and decided to stay home instead. The Emissions...
Brushing My Teeth with My Eyes Closed, Standing on One Leg
Brushing my teeth with my eyes closed while standing on one leg is both difficult and rewarding. Go figure. I can brush my teeth with my eyes closed, and I can brush my teeth while standing on one leg, but brushing my teeth with my eyes closed while standing on one...


