Lois Ruskai Melina’s work has been published in two anthologies of Idaho writers: Borne on Air (Eastern Washington Press) and Forged in Fire (University of Oklahoma Press), and has appeared or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, Carolina Quarterly, 2016 Best of the Net Anthology, Crack the Spine, and Lunch Ticket, among others. Her essays have been long-listed or finalists for the New Letters Prize for Nonfiction, the Torch Prize for Creative Nonfiction, and the Dead Bison Editors’ Prize in Nonfiction,. She is the author of three books on adoption, including Raising Adopted Children (HarperCollins). She lived in Moscow, Idaho for almost 30 years before moving to her current home in Portland, Oregon.
To find a star garnet:
First, drive to the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. Alternatively, go to India.
You will need to bring a shovel, a bucket, heavy plastic bags, and an eighteen-inch square made of two-by-fours with a quarter-inch screen stretched over one open side.
Take a child, too. A ten-year-old is best. A seven-year-old may get bored and start throwing rocks. (More …)