Red sweatshirts, tailgate parties, Badger mania, beautiful lake Mendota, State Street, and lots of beer. Some people experienced the University of Wisconsin-Madison this way. Not African American Ph.D. student Maddie Hawkins; her experience is colored by a marathon of deadlines, endless lab hours, competition, neglect, and walking through ill-lit parking lots in the dead of night. Maddie enters the male-dominated field of Plant Breeding to find new genes for disease resistance and to vindicate a daring research hypothesis. She thinks graduate school is a level playing field. She thinks she has what it takes. She is naïve. The political world of academia is a minefield of sexism, racism and egoism. During her three year hurdle-race to get her Ph.D. the disturbing presence of blue-eyed graduate student John Pitts provides the adrenaline. Like an irksome burr, he is everything she disapproves of: a cocky genius, an individualist and a total party animal. On the other hand Craig Berry, the president of the Black Student Caucus, is a fine, righteous brother. The characters in their world are the professors, both the feudal and the enlightened; the grad students, messed up and die-hard, and "the system," entrenched yet evolving. The heart leads where reason would forbid. This face-off of race, class and even religion threatens a bitter harvest. But "when the fire of love is ablaze" it burns "to ashes The Harvest of Reason." "WOW. I mean WOW...I read it in one four-hour sitting! I just could not stand not knowing what was going to happen next... a clear...view of internalized, individual, cultural AND institutional racism all working within a remarkably readable story. (Lynnea Yancy, Evanston, IL) I loved it. Absolutely loved it...I'm totally drawn into this. The characters are beautifully fleshed out...You've carved out some drama out of bean science...My favorite scene is the one in the restaurant when John meets Maddie's folks. I was hooting away.(Tom Kavelin, San Juan, PR) Maddie's growing self-confidence is handled well...It's like a slow but steady metamorphosis. The same with her racial awareness...writing from [the] heart here...It's poetry...Sexual tension between John and Maddie done well. (Sandy Kepheart, Monroeville, PA) "The Harvest of Reason is an intriguing mixture of science, racial politics, academia stultification, gender inequality, love, chastity, and family unity. It engages our interest and commands our respect...Maddie's credo of wanting her work to be useful, innovative, and to make a difference where it's most needed gives the story purpose. We want her to win that struggle." - Adrienne Ellis Reeves, Sacred Ground, Reckless (Arabesque). "The brilliantly created protagonist Maddie Hawkins is both authentic and insightful, from her plant genetics research and struggles with two-fold discrimination in academia, to her observations on male/female differences and revelations about self-segregation. Because of her integrity and endurance Maddie is an agent for change in the lives of all those she touches, including John Pitts, a brilliant but self-focused fellow student. Far more than a romance, The Harvest of Reason makes its point with wonderful subtlety: diversity is the key to strength and survival in any arena." - Barbara Miller (AKA Laurel Ames), The Pretender (Pocket Books), Nancy Whiskey (Harlequin Historical) "In her book Rhea Harmsen states what many people are looking for and can't find in the present day literary output - something fresh, hopeful and optimistic, yet realistic...The Harvest of Reason is a remarkable book, for it dares to explore issues that run counter to the prevailing culture, and succeeds in making a profound statement...it draws the reader closer to the racism problem than any college textbook. It tackles the gender issue in a sensitive way. Academic politics is exposed. - Nathan Rutstein, Healing Racism in America: A Prescription for the Disease (Whitcomb Pub.)
About the Author: Rhea Harmsen is a scientist, novelist and author of LANGUAGE OF THE SPIRIT (1997), a volume of selected poems. She has also released four novels, THE HARVEST OF REASON(2011), INTERMARRY(2014), GOD CREATED WOMEN(2014), and MORAL COURAGE (2014). Harmsen was born in a family with a black father and a white mother at a time when interracial marriage was still illegal in some states. Her parents gave her a vision of world citizenship that informs her writing and her lifestyle and has caused her to reject traditional views of race and gender. Harmsen's article "Science in the Hands of Women: Present Barriers, Future Promise," appeared in World Order in 1998 and provides the foundation for the story line of her novel, THE HARVEST OF REASON. She co-published the Monroeville Race Unity Forum Bulletin and authored many poems on racial topics, crystallizing the "conversation on race" in the novel INTERMARRY. Her work with domestic violence survivors in Puerto Rico inspired the novel GOD CREATED WOMEN. Her latest release, MORAL COURAGE is an exploration of the theme of women, war and fundamentalism. In 2012 Harmsen released ISAIAH'S LONGING, a CD of her spoken word poetry with music by composer Lee Robinson. Harmsen holds a doctorate in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has two children and currently resides in Puerto Rico with her husband. Upcoming projects are described in her web page at rheaharmsen.com.