Author Description

"Coal Town Girls is evocative, the voice distinctive – with beautifully atmospheric scenes.” -- Kathy Bratkowski, author and Emmy-award winning producer. Coal Town Girls takes a step into the world of Joan and her best friend, Mary, coming of age in a 1940s mining town in the Pennsylvania Appalachians. Just as the beauty of the girls’ beloved Stoneycreek River is tinged with the orange sulfur of mining run-off, so is the loveliness and innocence of their lives tinged by the hardness of the time and place. Class, gender, alcoholism, boyfriends, family, abandonment – these are all currents the girls navigate with strength, determination and humor. At the heart of the story is Joan’s struggle and coming to terms with a father who has been absent until circumstances bring them together after he serves time for manslaughter. Her close friendship with Mary helps to carry her through.