Sky Bridge by Laura Pritchett

Soon after the baby is born, Tess bolts farther west and Libby's boyfriend abandons her. The baby's father, a rider in the Christian rodeo, shows up and announces he wants custody. Her life spiraling downward, Libby steals a six-pack and is fired from the supermarket.

Laura Pritchett, whose first book, Hell's Bottom, Colorado, introduced several generations of a ranching family, creates in Sky Bridge a surrogate network of support for Libby-from the beekeeper, Ed Monger, to Miguel, another single parent. An award-winning author, praised for her ability to ride the edges between cruelty and kindness, Pritchett here pins the border between dreams and reality. In a deceptively straightforward way, she takes on the themes of our time.

Laura Pritchett is the author of Hell's Bottom, Colorado, a collection of short stories that won the Milkweed National Fiction Prize and the PEN/USA West Literary Award for Fiction. Her work has appeared in Sun, Elle, Divide, and Colorado Review. Pritchett has a BA and MA in English from Colorado State University and a PhD in Contemporary American Literature from Purdue. Pritchett lives near Fort Collins, Colorado.