Available now from Levellers Press
From divine dualities and trinities in 1940’s Vermont to the gods of the modern era in New York City, Queen of the Mountain follows Josephine Osborn as she steers through the trials of child- and young adulthood, ultimately finding her voice.
In Bradford, Vermont, Josie was beholden to her father’s ministerial demands, while her mother provided her with lessons from nature. In Chelsea, Massachusetts, her eyes were opened to the wider world, with kids of every background around her. Connecticut’s Chaffee School opened her mind, taught her her own value, and hinted at the deeper mysteries in life. Middlebury College threw her back into coeducation, and a summer at work in Hartford threw her for a loop, as she suffered symptoms of depersonalization. New York City fed her working woman ambition, brought her affairs, heartbreak, and a husband. Her husband brought her his need for his children to be Jewish— therefore she must convert. After embattled psychoanalysis with the infamous Dr. Tuftson, worshipped by his dynamic group and beloved by her husband, she was thrust back into organized religion, from which she had run when young. Still, she settled into the joys and pitfalls of mothering and marriage: how do you teach your kids about god? Gods? Goddesses? And who does the teaching?
Death then briskly takes her husband, her mother more slowly. In grief and relief, she moves through her middle years, revisiting Bradford with a broader view. She comes full circle to Mount Moosilauke, hiking into self-knowledge and finally a sense of agency and peace.
Zane Kotker wrote this book for sixty years. Culled from journal entries, jotted down notes, and her own experiences, this autobiographical novel shares how she sifted through the beliefs of others in order to arrive at her own. We are happy to posthumously fulfill her wish to bring this novel to light.
Thanks to Levellers Press and everyone involved in making this happen.
You can find Queen of the Mountain HERE
In a set of eleven stories, the critically acclaimed novelist Zane Kotker pulls readers into the lives of characters caught in apparently inescapable situations.
Of these stories the novelist Rosellen Brown says, “So smart, so rich with knowledge and full of feeling.”
Listen to Zane read from The Boy Who Walked to Distant Lands on May 9, 2018 at the Northampton Arts Center:
Married and with two children under two, Zane Kotker wrote her first novel on Tuesday
and Friday mornings when the babysitter came. Bodies in Motion was accepted by Bob Gottlieb at Knopf, to be followed by A Certain Man and White Rising. When her husband, the writer Norman Kotker, was stricken with multiple sclerosis, she turned to nonfiction, sometimes writing under the name of Maggie Strong. She returned to fiction in the late 1990’s with Try to Remember, and soon began researching for The Inner Sea. READ MORE
Instead of a blog, I’m sending an email for or five times a year to readers who want one. If you do, send me an email and I’ll sign you up.
Zane Kotker presents The Boy Who Walked to Distant Lands at Northampton's new center for the arts.
The author with the book's designer Randy Zucco
On the 18th, Zane read from Goodnight, Ladies at a private house party on Cape Cod.
April 8th, a corner of my table at the Easthampton Book Fest:
Goodnight, Ladies is now available as an ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Plus and iTunes.
On the 14th and 15th, Zane Kotker read from Goodnight, Ladies at the White Square bookshop in Easthampton, MA.
Reading at the White Square
Signing books at the White Square
On the 11th, Zane read from Goodnight, Ladies at Forbes Library.
Signing books at the Forbes Library.
Zane Kotker read from Goodnight, Ladies at the Northampton Senior Center.
Zane Kotker read new poems at the Broadside bookshop, joining other contributors to the latest publication of The Gallery of Readers Press, Celebrating Writers of the Pioneer Valley Anthology 2017.
Zane Kotker read from Goodnight, Ladies at the Easthampton Lathrop community on the 7th, at a house party for the book in Lexington, MA on the 17th and at the Northampton Lathrop community on the 21st.
Zane Kotker presents her new novella
Goodnight, Ladies,
at the Broadside Bookshop, 247 Main Street,
Northampton, MA.
WHMP’s Bill Newman interviews Zane Kotker on his morning program, calling Goodnight, Ladies "exquisite".
As a guest of the Gallery of Readers, Zane Kotker read with her cousin Elizabeth Dirks in the Neilson room at Smith College. Listen here:
Zane has been named a finalist for the Pablo Neruda poetry prize from Nimrod magazine at the University of Tulsa.
Zane has been invited to book groups that have read The Inner Sea to talk about the book and answer questions. If you are interested in having her visit, please contact her.
The Inner Sea is now available as an ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Plus and iTunes.
Zane Kotker presents her new novel
The Inner Sea: A Novel of the Year 100
October 15, 7 pm
Broadside Bookshop
247 Main Street
Northampton, MA
Zane was interviewed about The Inner Sea recently on New England Public Radio. Listen to the full interview:
Part of the audience at the A.P.E. reading.
The Inner Sea: A Novel of the Year 100fresh from Levellers Press, an up-and-coming publisher in what The New York Times calls the heart of book-friendly Massachusetts.