Light in the Trees
A memoir of home, nature, and change in the American West, Light in the Trees makes cultural and environmental topics personal through a narrator’s travels between past and present, rural and urban. Sasquatch myths and serial killer realities, a runaway Appaloosa, and turbulent volcanoes beneath serene mountaintops help chronicle a coming of age for both a narrator and a place. A later move to the Southwest expands Folkins’s view of the West. From this new perspective paired with frequent journeys to the Northwest, she explores challenges of the natural world, from wildlife habitat and water quality to a changeable climate and wildfires, navigating new versions of home and self along the way. Light in the Trees was named a finalist in the Foreword Reviews 2016 Book of the Year Awards in the Nature category.
Texas Dance Halls
Texas Dance Halls: A Two-Step Circuit, a creative nonfiction book, takes you on a journey to eighteen dance halls. Along the way, meet musicians, owners, and patrons who keep these historic sites vibrant. Photographs by J. Marcus Weekley help illustrate their stories. Texas Dance Halls was named a finalist in the Foreword Reviews 2007 Book of the Year Awards in the Popular Culture category.
“In the rhythm and swirl of these images and words, we are but one step removed from the dance.” — Andy Wilkinson, from the Preface
Blue Norther
— essay from “Dispatches” section of The Common
Duet
— essay from River Teeth Beautiful Things
Texas Dance Halls: History, Culture, and Community
Texas Dance Halls: History, Culture, and Community
— scholarly essay from the Journal of Texas Music History
List of Works Published
Books – Creative Nonfiction
Light in the Trees. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2016. Print.
Texas Dance Halls: A Two-Step Circuit. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2007. Print.
Prose – Creative Nonfiction
“Recovery at Rattlesnake Lake,” About Place Journal Vol. 8 Issue I June (2024). Web.
“Gap Winds,” Under the Sun, 9 May (2023). Web.
“Six Stages of Air Quality,” About Place Journal Vol. 7 Issue II December (2022). Web.
“Snow Lake,” Deep Wild Journal Vol. 4 (2022): 25. Print.
“Colleagues and Friends.” JAKE 4 July (2022). Web.
“Defensive Stance,” Crab Creek Review Vol 1 (2022): 47. Print.
“Follow the Energy: Two Riders on Writing.” (co-written with Lisa Whalen). Cagibi (April 2021).Web.
“Fever Dream.” Passager Books, “Pandemic Diaries” (November 2020). Web.
“Through the Ice.” Proem (Fall 2019): 14. Print.
“From a Distance.” For Love of Orcas: An Anthology (2019): 29. Print.
“Runaway Horses.” Concho River Review 33.1 (Spring/Summer 2019): 60. Print.
“Waiting on a Load.” Timberline Review 7 (2018): 91. Print.
“Great Nature Reads Set in the Pacific Northwest.” 8 Favorite Reads, August 2017. Web.
“Blue Norther.” The Common – Dispatches 5 Oct. (2016). Web.
“Duet.” River Teeth Journal – Beautiful Things 7 Sept. (2015). Web.
“I measure winter in cocoa, 59 servings just enough to sweeten days layered in snow and
bitter cold.” Tweet. Creative Nonfiction 56 (Summer 2015): 80. Print.
“Stall Rest.” Her Texas: Story, Image, Poem, and Song. Ed. Donna Walker-Nixon. San Antonio: Wings Press, 2015. Print.
“Snowbirds.” Wisconsin Life. Wisconsin Public Radio. WLBL-FM, Wausau. 8 May 2015. Radio.
“Trilliums.” Wisconsin Life. Wisconsin Public Radio. WLBL-FM, Wausau. 9 Apr. 2014. Radio.
“A Cultural Tour of Dance Halls.” Texas Highways 60.8 2013: cover story. Print.
“Through the Ashes.” Wildflower Magazine 39.2 2013: cover story. Print.
“Right at Home.” Texas Co-op Power Sept. 2013: 12-14. Print.
“Bus Stops.” Transitions Abroad May (2013). Web.
“Laundry Lessons.” North Dakota Quarterly 78.2 & 3 (Spring/Summer 2011): 129-135. Print.
“Blackberry Summers.” Caesura (2011): 9-15. Print.
“Conifers Call: Comeback Kids in Second-Growth Forests.” Wildflower Magazine 28.2 2011: 27. Print.
“A Route for the Wild.” Wildflower Magazine 28.1 2011: 32. Print.
“After a Fall.” The Common summer (2011). Web.
“Upstream.” Imagination & Place: Ownership. Lawrence: Imagine & Place Press, 2010: 148–156. Print.
“Nebel.” Centaur Jan. (2010). Web.
“A Palouse Horse.” Iron Horse Literary Review 11.3 (2009): 68–75. Print.
“Dancing in the Round through Austin County.” Round-Top Register Winter 2009: 4-5. Print.
“Shoes.” Melusine summer (2009). Web.
“Bigfoot in the Backyard.” Fearsome Fascinations. Dyer: Outrider Press, 2009: 71–76. Print.
“Light in the Trees.” Amoskeag: The Journal of Southern NH Univ. spring (2009): 36–41. Print.
“The Face of Ancient Texas.” Texas Co-op Power Jan. 2007: cover story; 6–11. Print.
“Five Minutes More.” The Fourth River autumn (2007): 26–32. Print.
“Three-Cheek Kiss.” SLAB spring (2006): 1–10. Print.
“After the Volcano.” R-KV-R-Y spring (2006). Web.
“Texas Dance Halls.” Texas Co-op Power Jan. 2006: cover story; 6–9. Print.
“From Horseback.” Horse Crazy. Ed. Bronwyn Llewellyn. Boston: Adams, 2005: 147–153. Print.
Prose – Fiction
“Unicorns.” Skyline Magazine summer (2007). Web.
Prose – Scholarly Articles
“Straight from the Source: Primary Research and the Personality Profile.” Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies spring (2016). Web.
“Texas Dance Halls: History, Music, and Culture.” The Journal of Texas Music History
fall (2006): 52–60. Print.
“From a Feast to the Moon – Two Journalists Define Paris.” Lifewriting Annual: Biographical and
Autobiographical Studies. Brooklyn: AMS Press, 2005: 169–176. Print.
“A Lone Voice in Country Protest Music: Steve Earle.” New Texas (2005): 19–35. Print.
Poetry
“Upstream.” Contemporary Rural Social Work. 7.2 (2015): 174. Web.
“Fondue Memory.” A Taste of Literary Elegance: Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate.
San Andreas: Manzanita Writers Press, 2014: 63. Print.
“Cedar Bear.” di-verse-city Founders’ Edition (2003): 33. Print.
“Third Christmas After.” Sorin Oak Review First Edition (2002): 49. Print.
“Train Song.” Sorin Oak Review First Edition (2002): 36. Print.
“New Eden.” Pink Cadillac 6.2 (2002): 6. Print.
“The Stranger.” Pink Cadillac 6.2 (2002): 2. Print.
“Beyond the Last Sunset.” Persona (1996): 57. Print.
“The Artist’s Sink.” Persona (1993): 54. Print.
“He Ponders Lack of Laundry Change with Red Hanrahan’s Shade.” Persona (1993): 36. Print.
Book Reviews and Interview
Rev. of The Days Are Gods, by Liz Stephens. The Florida Review 39.1 & 2 (2015): 249–250. Print.
Rev. of Women in Texas Music, by Kathleen Hudson. Great Plains Quarterly 29.2 (2009): 165–166.
Print. “Interview with Dennis Covington.” The Fourth River autumn (2007): 132–136. Print.