The White Dove: A Celebration of Father Kino

The White Dove: A Celebration of Father Kino

By Jane Candia Coleman

In this stunning and unique work, the seventh book in High Plains Press’s prize-winning Poetry of the American West series, poet and novelist Jane Candia Coleman brings Father Kino, his extraordinary vision, and the people of his beloved Sonora Desert to brilliant life.

The Jesuit missionary, Eusebio Kino, arrived in Mexico in 1681, almost 100 years before the start of the American Revolution and two hundred years before the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral put its nefarious mark on Arizona history.  What he found was a vast, often violent and inhospitable country, for the most part unexplored, its native people primitive, sometimes hostile.

Yet Kino, mathematician, cartographer, explorer, astronomer, architect, importer and breeder of cattle and fine Spanish Barb horses, and above all, priest, left a lasting imprint on Mexico and the American Southwest.

Poet Jane Candia Coleman steps inside the heart and mind of Father Kino and tells his story, from his beginnings Italy, to the luck of the draw which sent him to Mexico rather than to China where he longed to go, through his laying of the cornerstones of San Xavier del Bac Mission, “the White Dove of the Desert.”

• 978-0-931271-83-0 • trade paper • 96 pp • $12.95 ORDER NOW

The White Dove: A Celebration of Father Kino

By Jane Candia Coleman

"These poems are extraordinary in their simplicity and depth, and in capturing the spirit of a Jesuit missionary.  They also capture the austere beauty of Sonora and Southern Arizona."
••Father William Stoeger, S.J.

"The White Dove.  It is beautiful.  Like a prayer." 
•• Patricia Preciado Martin, prize-winning author

Jane Candia Coleman

Jane Candia Coleman’s first book, a volume of poetry, No Roof But Sky (High Plains Press), was received with enthusiasm by critics and readers alike. The Red Drum, a second poetry volume, followed a few years later. High Plains Press also published her book of poetry about the life of Father Kino, The White Dove, in 2007.

Coleman writes in plain language, combining words and phrases to form a startlingly lyrical symphony of the West. As Paul L. Allen wrote in the Tucson Citizen, “It’s obvious she’s one of them as don’t hold much truck with frills or doo-dads. She doesn’t waste words. She’s not obtuse and she’s not obscure. She writes spare and lean and sinewy, and damn, she does it well.”

Coleman has written 21 books in the genres of fiction, memoir, poetry, and short stories.

Jane Candia Coleman is the recipient of three Western Heritage Awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame—two for poetry, No Roof But Sky and The Red Drum, and another for her first collection of short fiction, Stories From Mesa Country.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but hungering even as a child for the West, she made her first trip there in 1965 and moved to a ranch in Cochise County, Arizona, in 1986. She now lives in Tucson.

She was the co-founder and Director of the Women’s Creative Writing Center at Carlow College in Pittsburgh, and she currently teaches in the low-residency MFA program there.

“I first discovered Jane Candia Coleman in Louis L’Amour Western Magazine,” said Johnny D. Boggs, author of Whiskey Kills and other Killstraight stories, “first with her short story ‘Lou,’ which I thought was brilliant, then a few years later with another short story, ‘Are You Coming Back, Phin Montana?,’ which also blew me away. She’s an absolutely amazing writer — whether she’s writing short fiction or historical novels — with a strong sense of place, and wonderful characters. Her prose often reads like pure poetry. No surprise there. She’s also an incredible poet.”