South Dakota Magazine reported on April 9 that one of my favorite authors, Linda Hasselstrom, is returning to her ranch outside of Hermosa, SD, after living for a number of years in Wyoming. I’m one of the people who’s thrilled to hear it. I’m even happier to hear that she has a new book coming out called No Place Like Home.
I read through several of Hasselstrom’s books about a dozen years ago, and her writing, along with Kathleen Norris’s Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, played a fundamental role in forming my sense of place, as well as helping me come to terms with being a South Dakotan. Not just in the “yeah, I grew up here” sense but in the very deep down South-Dakota’s-in-my-DNA-and-I-just-can’t-get-it-out sense. Both Hasselstrom and Norris wrote primarily about the western part of the state, but what they said about rural places and people rang just as true for me here in East River. They encouraged me to be unapologetic about being from South Dakota, to honor my place while being honest about it. To appreciate its beauty and be content with its limitations, which sometimes turn out to be blessings.
