My Flint Hills

"Hoy’s gift as a writer is his attention to detail and the patience with which he chronicles life in a part of the world that is largely undocumented, even within the world of Western literature."—Western American Literature

“[Hoy’s] descriptions of ranch life in the tallgrass prairie, past and present, are a major cultural contribution to the literature of place.”—Roundup Magazine

“Jim Hoy knows the Flint Hills as well, if not better, than anyone who has written on the subject, and My Flint Hills is Hoy’s ‘love song’ to the region. The stories in this book are reflections of life lived in the region and of the deep family ties he has to the hills. There are works on the Flint Hills but none with a passionate and informed voice like Hoy’s. It is a joy to read Hoy’s deep-rooted affection for the place he calls home.”—James Sherow, author of The Chisholm Trail: Joseph McCoy’s Great Gamble

“Grass isn’t the only thing that grows beautifully in the Kansas Flint Hills. So do families, horses, tall tales, myths, unwelcome cedar trees, the number of stars you can see in the sky, and women who make legendary pies. Even when some folks are remembered only in fragments of amusing yarns, their names have a place in the deep and horizontal root system Jim Hoy cultivates. It’s as if he anticipated the rest of us, stopping on I-35 between Emporia and Cassoday to admire the view from the scenic overlook at the Bazaar Cattle Pens, and wondering what’s really happening out there in those hills. He did us the favor of writing it all down.”—C. J. Janovy, opinion editor at the Kansas Reflector, an affiliate of the national States Newsroom network of nonprofit news sites, and author of No Place Like Home: Lessons in Activism from LGBT Kansas