Women, Animals, and Vegetables: Essays and Stories

``You cannot make even a modest living writing poems, but you can keep body and soul together nicely by reading them out loud to people.'' Poet, essayist and fiction writer Kumin ( Looking for Luck ) recounts one of her ``po-biz'' journeys in one of the 10 captivating essays here, many of which were inspired by her life on a New Hampshire farm. Kumin writes about wild mushrooms, vegetable gardening, jam-making; rehabilitating an abused horse, taking in a starving dog, training trail horses. The seven moving short stories included here are a bonus. (July)