Jonis Agee, the Adele Hall Professor of English at UNL, will discuss her new novel, THE BONES OF PARADISE, which the New York Journal of Books has called “the finest western novel since LONESOME DOVE.” Agee is the author of 12 books, including five collections of short fiction, six novels, and a book of poetry. Three of her books – BEND THIS HEART, SWEET EYES, and STRANGE ANGELS – were named New York Times Notable Books. She has won a fellowship for writing from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was presented with the AWP George Garrett Award for Service to Literature, among other honors. With her husband, the writer Brent Spencer, she founded the literary press Brighthorse Books.

THE BONES OF PARADISE is set ten years after the massacre at Wounded Knee. At the center of the novel are two remarkable women. Dulcinea, returned to the Nebraska Sand Hills after bitter years of self-exile, yearns for redemption and the courage to mend her broken family and reclaim the land that is rightfully hers. Rose, scarred by the terrible slaughters that have decimated and dislocated her people, struggles to accept the death of her sister, Star, and refuses to rest until she is avenged.

Booklist gave the novel a starred review, writing: “A haunting tale… Agee brilliantly interweaves two stories of loss, guilt, and vengeance, which play out against the vivid backdrop of the Sand Hills… Beautifully rendered and thought-provoking.”