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Navel of the Moon is a coming-of-age tale centering on Vicenta “Vicky” Lumiere, a resident of the Irish Channel neighborhood of New Orleans. By closely observing her neighbors and friends, often with a critical eye and a naïve interpretation, Vicky learns  that the world fails to fall into discrete categories of good and evil, and that any attempt to assert authority over chaos is ultimately impossible. The characters that structure Vicky's world are intriguing, beginning with her Mexican grandmother, Mimy, whose claim to be from the "navel of the moon" baffles Vicky. Over the course of one summer, the heroine's attempts to understand the illusive nature of friendship captures the sorrow, the happiness, and the ordinary of one's humanity.

Originally published in 1989, this Gnomon Press edition was released in 1996.

In Newfound, Jim Wayne Miller offers a lyrical, plain-spoken coming-of-age story set in Appalachian Tennessee. In episodic vignettes, young Robert navigates his parents’ divorce, life on his grandparents’ farms, and seasonal rhythms. By age seventeen he leaves Newfound Creek for Berea College, shaped by family lore and hard-won lessons. In 1993 Miller published a sequel: His First, Best Country.