River Muse: Tales from Lowell and the Merrimack Valley, a wide-ranging anthology of stories from various Merrimack Valley area writers, including unpublished work by Jack Kerouac, deftly illustrates this fact: fertile literary imaginations continue to grow along the Merrimack River Valley. The writers in these pages, grounded in a literary tradition as deep as those along the Hudson River Valley and the Connecticut River Valley, reflect a uniquely modern aspect of the New England character, one shaped by grave-yard shifts, neighborhood dives, comic book stores, immigrants, and railroad yards. Their stories give us the unvarnished life of a people and a place steeped in lore yet brimming with new mysteries. In doing so, they herald the region's latest revival.--David Cappella, poet and Professor of English at Central Connecticut State University and co-author of A Surge of Language and Teaching the Art of Poetry: The Moves. Authors: Jay Atkinson, Steven Lee Beeber, Charlie Bevis, Mark Burns, E. Christopher Clark, Lloyd L. Corricelli, J.F. Dacey, David Daniel, Judith Dickerman Nelson, Andre Dubus, Peter Eliopoulous, Dan Graffeo, Jacquelyn Malone, Beverly A. McCoy, Stephen O'Connor, Bob Sanchez, Joshua Shapiro, Jerry Bisantz, Pierre Comtois, Andre Dubus III, Lucy Larcom, Paul Marion, Henri Marchand, Chath pierSath, Kassie Rubico, Chaz Scoggins, Tom Sexton, Kenneth Tingle, César Sánchez Beras, Charles Dickens, Jack Kerouac, David Perry, Edgar Allan Poe, Sebastian Sampas, Nancye TuttleAll profits from the sale of this book will be donated to veterans' charities. Read more about the book at: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_20777347/lowell-serves-backdrop-new-collection-short-stories Presented by Sons of Liberty Publishing, LLC. (www.sonsoflibertypublishing.com)