"In Dale Neal’s novella, Floodmarks, the Asheville Flood of 1916 leaves its marks on a woman who survived it and the young reporter she corrals to tell her story. In our current climate, rife with floods, fires, and other disasters, this book is an eloquent reminder to listen to other people's stories--and to our own."

—Mimi Herman, author of The Kudzu Queen 

"Dale Neal unleashes his abundant narrative gifts on a close-to-the-bone tale of a lonely young man’s search for courage and purpose in a profession that demands more bravado than he can easily muster. Part love letter to a city and its most famous writer, Floodmarks is a moving ballad of personal struggle, bygone newsrooms and the truths we can stumble into when our private anguish collides with other people’s disasters."

—Kathryn Schwille, author of What Luck, This Life

"Dale Neal’s Floodmarks is a tightly crafted, exquisitely paced gem of a novella. Neal’s protagonist, George Flack, offers up a nostalgic, lyrical reminiscence of his days as a cub reporter in 1980s Asheville, NC, and the novella becomes, on one level, a love letter to the mountain town and its changing landscapes. The characters in Floodmarks are all flawed survivors, each searching for some sort of détente with the past, and Neal’s masterful depiction of their emotional scars gives Floodmarks a resonance that rings long after the final page." 

—Scott Gould, author of Peace Like a River and Beneath a Fallen Sky