Arkansas Gem
Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2025 11:27 pm
Here is my good news for the week. My novel, THE SONG OF THE BLUE BOTTLE TREE, is officially an Arkansas Gem. Explanation is below. All nineteen books chosen are featured on posters that go to every single library in the state of Arkansas. Maybe the state of my birth will finally accept the book into one of its libraries. Over 200 other libraries have it on the shelves, including some in United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Botswana, of all places. But back home? Not yet.
I've known about it since late spring, but couldn't announce it until after the National Book Festival in Washington DC last weekend. It is at the bottom right of the poster, which I cannot figure out how to post here in a reasonable size. Had a heckuva a time figurng out how to post it at all. If Someone knows how to smallen it?

Arkansas Gems is an annual publication of the Arkansas Center for the Book at the Arkansas State Library. Arkansas Gems posters and bookmarks feature approximately twenty new works about Arkansas or by authors with a connection to the Natural State. Previously known as Fresh from Arkansas, the project began in 2004, and it is one of the ways the Arkansas Center for the Book fulfills the mission of encouraging reading, writing, and literacy in the state.
Inclusion in the poster is based on the work’s literary or artistic merit, originality, and potential for local and regional interest. Titles with registered copyrights published within the current calendar year or previous calendar year will be considered.
I've known about it since late spring, but couldn't announce it until after the National Book Festival in Washington DC last weekend. It is at the bottom right of the poster, which I cannot figure out how to post here in a reasonable size. Had a heckuva a time figurng out how to post it at all. If Someone knows how to smallen it?

Arkansas Gems is an annual publication of the Arkansas Center for the Book at the Arkansas State Library. Arkansas Gems posters and bookmarks feature approximately twenty new works about Arkansas or by authors with a connection to the Natural State. Previously known as Fresh from Arkansas, the project began in 2004, and it is one of the ways the Arkansas Center for the Book fulfills the mission of encouraging reading, writing, and literacy in the state.
Inclusion in the poster is based on the work’s literary or artistic merit, originality, and potential for local and regional interest. Titles with registered copyrights published within the current calendar year or previous calendar year will be considered.