Patsy Ann

Patsy Ann was a bull terrier who truly embodied the Alaskan spirit. In the 1930s, Patsy Ann was brought to Alaska as a puppy to be a pet, but she had other plans for herself. Instead of being coddled indoors or tethered in the yard, she wanted to explore the bustling town full of totem poles, salmon, and fascinating people. Even though she was deaf, Patsy Ann would run to the docks to meet incoming ships-eventually becoming the town's official greeter. In that way, she went from nobody's dog to everybody's dog. Tricia Brown is the author of many books including The World Famous Alaska Highway. After living in and traveling Alaska for two decades, she now lives in Scappoose, OR. Jim Fowler is a painter and children's book illustrator. He lives in Juneau, AK.

The son of former slaves, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the most prominent and publicly recognized figures in American literature at the turn of the twentieth century. Thirty-three years old at the time of his death in 1906, he had published four novels, four collections of short stories, and fourteen books of poetry, not to mention numerous songs, plays, and essays in newspapers and magazines around the world. In the century following his death, Dunbar slipped into relative obscurity, remembered mainly for his dialect poetry or as a footnote to other more canonical figures from the period. The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar showcases his gifts as a writer of short fiction and provides key insights into the tensions and themes of Dunbar's literary achievement. Through examining the 104 stories written by Dunbar between 1890 and 1905, readers will be able to better understand Dunbar's specific attempts to maintain his artistic integrity while struggling with America's racist stereotypes. His work interrogated the color-line that informed American life and dictated his role as an artist in American letters. Editors Gene Jarrett and Thomas Morgan identify major themes and implications in Dunbar's work. Available in one convenient, comprehensive, and definitive volume for the first time, The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar illustrates the complexity of his literary life and legacy. ABOUT THE EDITORS---Gene Jarrett is an assistant professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is co-editor (with Henry Louis Gates Jr.) of a forthcoming anthology, New Negro Criticism: Essays on Race, Representation, and African American Culture.Thomas Morgan is a lecturer at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research and teaching interests focus on critical race theory in late-nineteenth century American and African American literature, specifically as it applies to the politics of narrative form.