Just in time for the holidays, two intriguing new books from Western New York writers explore the supernatural - and what ghosts and monsters do to our human imaginations - in very different ways.
In the first, "Breathing the Monster Alive," Canisius College professor Eric Gansworth explores the myth and legend of Bigfoot in prose, poetry, and artwork. Gansworth, an Onondaga who has published three previous novels, writes in this 64-page work that it is "time for Bigfoot to reemerge in the world psyche," and presents his own artistic interpretations of the compelling legend. A poem cycle forms the middle section of the book, which also includes prose essays. From Bright Hill Press, $16.
In the second, "Village Ghosts of Western New York," local ghost-master and storyspinner Mason Winfield - on his fifth book involving "spooky stuff," as he puts it - relates the stories of ghosts that call select WNY villages home. Among the dream-haunting figures inside these covers: the "Pigman" of Angola; the "White Bigfoot" of Belmont; the "Hydesville Peddler"; and the "Witch of Squakie Hill." A truly enjoyable feast for lovers of local lore - not to mention ghost aficianadoes. From Western New York Wares, at www.buffalobooks.com, $14
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