2014 Fiction Book of the Year Winner of the President's Award presented by the Ozarks Writers League Washed in the Water: Tales from the South offers vignettes of folks living the best they know how as they reach out for redemption. Set between 1950 and 1980, each tale stares at an individual as unique as the humid landscape of the South. Hard lives, daily survival, and lessons about getting on with the business of living reverberate among the characters. ." . . compelling, wide-ranging stories. Hartney brings to mind both Caldwell and Allison, but her voice at last is her own. 'Last Love' is both gritty and warm, and 'The Fig Trees' is deftly nuanced." Robert Cochran, Center for Arkansas and Regional Studies, University of Arkansas "This brief collection of stories deals with such diverse experiences as a river baptism and coon hunting while it embraces emotions of love, jealousy, and altruism. The seven southern tales contain some real gems." Pat Carr, author of One Page at a Time and The Radiance of Fossils "No better voice of the south can be found than Nancy Hartney, with her touching stories of life looked at in a most extraordinary way. Hartney writes about people we can love or despise, but most of all sympathize with and enjoy." WILLA Award-winning author Velda Brotherton