'/> Uncommon Hours
Blogging on culture, politics, and the environment since 2008.

Friday, June 5, 2020

'Zombie Power Plant' recounts the Sierra Club-Kansas Chapter victory over coal-burning utility



For over fifteen years the Sierra Club-Kansas Chapter waged an epic battle to prevent a new coal-burning utility plant from breaking ground in Holcomb, Kansas. "Zombie Power Plant" recounts that saga in a new release by Fomite Press in its 'Tracts' series. Ebooks free except for Kindle ($0.99). Print copies $3.99. Order here:

Saturday, October 5, 2019

'Losing Francis' receives highest honors at the 2019 Thorpe Menn Awards luncheon

Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home is the recipient of the 2019 Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award, sponsored by the American Association of University Women - Kansas City.




Thursday, August 1, 2019

'Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home' nominated for the 2019 Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award

Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home has been nominated for the 2019 Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award.



"Losing Francis is a vibrant, indispensable document of life in our time.”

                                        –Whitney Terrell, author of The Good Lieutenant

"Sommer’s prose often rises to the poetic, his storytelling is poignant yet never sentimental, and his unflinching honesty in relating his son’s life and death leave the reader with a lump in the throat and a righteous anger. Losing Francis will surely take its earned place in the lamentably-large library of great literature of the home front.”
                                      —Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, Oklahoma State Poet Laureate 2017-18

Learn more about Losing Francis and order your copy here.











Friday, January 18, 2019

‘Cooking with Francis’: a seven-year labor of love!

It's finally here, after seven years of cooking, testing, and writing Cooking with Francis: Gourmet Home Cooking, by Heather Sommer! 



Francis's mother knew how important his log-book was when he was lost — the culmination of his culinary arts degree, over 100 recipes from his classwork and years at a popular Kansas City bistro. She resized (eight gallons of pesto sauce!?) and tested every recipe for the family table, pushing herself, with no formal training, to amazing new levels of understanding food and its sources and preparation and cultural meaning. The result is a beautiful cookbook with recipes for every occasion and taste, and stories to go with many of them. Proceeds will support Heifer International and FrancisFund.org.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

‘A Must-Read Narrative of US Military Family Life': A new Amazon review for ‘Losing Francis'

https://www.amazon.com/Losing-Francis-Essays-Wars-Home/dp/194438846X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520093231&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=summer+losing+francis By William M. Decker

Losing Francis: Essays on the War at Home should take its place among the most important recent narratives of US military family life. In clear, courageous, and eloquent prose, Robert Sommer documents what it’s like for parents and siblings to endure, day by day, and hour by hour, not only their loved one’s overseas tour of duty, but that loved one’s perilous return to a homeland that cannot possibly understand the veteran’s trauma and that is grossly unprepared to address the challenges of re-entry. This is a book that needs to be read by legislators and ordinary citizens who, unless they have a more or less direct link to those we have called upon to fight the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, can form no conception of the burdens our soldiers and their families are asked to bear. Losing Francis illuminates one of the great social invisibilities of contemporary American life. It should be on everyone’s list of 2018/2019 must-read titles.

Monday, November 12, 2018

Disarming Armistice Day / Truthout

My op-ed on Armistice Day in Truthout … 

"These days might better serve us, and those whom we mean to honor, by meditating on needless sacrifice, needless wars, opportunities lost, the reality of war’s awfulness, as those at the first Remembrance Day did."



Visit Fomite Press for more on my new book, Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

'Losing Francis brings memory to lyrical life' - a new review

Chicago writer Lew Rosenbaum has posted a new review of Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home at the Chicago Labor and Arts Festival Blog, which he also edits.

Read his review here: "Thank You for Your Service"

Monday, October 15, 2018

"The Art of Grief: 'Windows and Mirrors'" at the Ulrich Museum of Art



I'm honored to be invited to speak at the Ulrich Museum of Art, at Wichita State University, on October 17th, about my exploration of the American Friends Service Committee exhibit, "Windows and Mirrors: Reflections of the War in Afghanistan," which toured North America in 2011-12.

For the benefit of attendees and anyone who may be interested, I'm posting here several links related to the exhibit and my presentation:

Losing Francis: Essays on the Wars at Home -- which includes "The Art of Grief: 'Windows and Mirrors'" (revised)

"The Art of Grief: 'Windows and Mirrors'" -- my essay as it first appeared in The Common On-Line

Catalogue for "Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan"

Flickr gallery of "Windows and Mirrors" paintings

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Great reading at Prospero's Books in Kansas City!

I had the honor of sharing time with John Musgrave, who recently appeared in the Burns & Novick Vietnam series on PBS, and poet H.C. Palmer, Vietnam veteran field surgeon and poet.  





http://www.fomitepress.com/Francis.html