Reading with Stevensville author JoDean Nicolette

Join Stevensville author JoDean Nicolette at The Sour Doe (101 Church St.) for a reading from her recently released memoir, Trail Magic: A Physician’s Journey Through the Appalachian Mountains, published by Choeofpleirn Press and named the top finalist in the Kenneth Johnston Contest. Doors open at 5 pm for refreshments, and the reading will begin at 5:30 pm.

Trail Magic takes us on Nicolette’s untamed journey as she hikes the Appalachian Trail known only by her trail name, “Violet.” As Violet struggles to ascend dangerous peaks and cross wild rivers, she also struggles with the inhumanity of medical education, sexual harassment and sexism, her father’s cancer death, and her mother’s long term addiction. She concludes her hike facing a daunting Maine wilderness and her husband Ben’s rare and life-threatening medical condition, which helps her see medicine from the patient’s perspective. On her Appalachian journey, Violet achieves more than distance. She finds a profound belonging in wilderness, learning and sharing information about biophilia—the health benefits resulting from engaging with the natural world—rediscovering herself under the sheltering green canopy, finally finding her place in family and in medicine, and experiencing again and again the beauty of it all.

“Trail Magic is both intimate and universal, beautifully expressing what it is to be a woman on the trail (and a woman in the world, period). Nicolette has written a moving, propulsive narrative full of adventure, meaningful connections, and sage wisdom.”
— Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light and We Were the Universe

JoDean Nicolette is a writer, physician, and teacher. A graduate of the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Pacific University MFA Program, she believes in the healing power of both nature and the written word. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Missoula Writing Collaborative, and partners with Pacific University on “The Body Chronicles,” a program helping authors write about the experience of wellness and illness. Her work has appeared in the Sun, the Chicago Tribune’s Print Row Journal, the Tishman Review, Sugared Water, Inscape, and the Rappahannock Review. A Pushcart nominee, JoDean has been awarded Top Finalist in the Kenneth Johnston Nonfiction Book Contest, the Grand Prize for Prose in the Maine Review‘s Rocky Coast Contest, and the Scribes Valley Publishing Prize for Short Fiction. She lives in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley with her dogs and horses. Trail Magic is her first book.