The stories of Holding On show life in Furnass during the prosperous late 1970s and early 1980s, though there are rumors of mill closings and layoffs. Interwoven is a tale of two Scottish soldiers two hundred years earlier in the same area, struggling through the virgin forest looking for lost sheep. "Brimming with rustic energy and written in an authentically American voice. Snodgrass has a keenly compassionate eye for human nature and an excellent ear for sincere speech. The narration is also clever and dense, painting a vivid picture for those readers eager to get lost in the past. Exposing universal themes through an intensely intimate portrait of America, Holding On is a powerful achievement from a truly standout author." -- SPR, ★★★★½ "Witty and poignant, and occasionally ribald, HOLDING ON is a worthy addition to the Snodgrass's epic tale of a town in America's heartland." -- IndieReader "A finely crafted, often haunting portrait of a steel town . . . " -- Kirkus Reviews Richard Snodgrass is an author and photographer whose short stories and essays have appeared in the New England Review/Bread Loaf Quarterly, South Dakota Review, California Review, Pittsburgh Quarterly, and elsewhere. He is a master photographer who has been artist-in-residence at LightWorks (University of Syracuse) and at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 1989, Viking published Snodgrass's novel, There's Something in the Back Yard, to critical acclaim: "Observe this mysterious book and be changed," wrote Jack Stephens in the Washington Post Book World. Snodgrass is also the author of An Uncommon Field: The Flight 93 Temporary Memorial, published in September of 2011 by Carnegie Mellon University Press, and Kitchen Things: An Album of Vintage Utensils and Farm Kitchen Recipes, published in 2013 by Skyhorse and named one of the year's "best books to get you thinking about food" by the Associated Press. Richard Snodgrass lives in Pittsburgh, PA, with his wife Marty and two indomitable female tuxedo cats, raised from feral kittens, named Frankie and Becca.