O. H. Bennett has been writing in one form or another all his life: advertising as a radio station copywriter, battalion orders as a United States Marine officer, software manuals as a technical writer. Mr. Bennett received a degree in Journalism from the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana and is a graduate of the George Mason University Creative Writing program in Fairfax, Virginia where he earned his master of Fine Arts degree. The Colored Garden is his first novel.

Praise for Bennett's First Novel:

“An affecting first novel...This novel shows how the hidden history of a family, once unearthed, can forever change a person’s view of himself and his relatives.” ~Jeff Waggoner, The New York Times Book Review 6/25/2000

“…a lovely literary debut and Bennett is a writer to watch.” ~Library Journal 3/15/00

“Bennett’s first novel is beautiful and real; impossible to put down until the final page.” ~BOOKLIST 2/15/00

Format: Paperback, 264pp.
Publisher: Laughing Owl Publishing, Incorporated
Pub. Date: February 2000
Edition Desc: 1 ED

Read Chapter 1 - Meeting the Gardener

The Colored Garden is a story about storytellers: a boy called Sarge and his grandmother, Ruth, whose farm he visits in the wake of his parents’ separation. On the farm is an old slave cemetery that Ruth tends as a beautiful flower garden. It is a remnant from the days when their land was a small patch of a great tobacco plantation. Residing there, from generations long past, are slaves who were laid to rest under the ground they once worked. One marker tells a far different story. It is the marker of an infant that reads, "Kate. Born and died the same week. Budded on earth to blossom in heaven." And the baby is not all that lies buried in the garden.

As Sarge struggles to understand his parents’ impending divorce, he no longer knows who or what to believe until Grandmother Ruth begins to tell him the adventures of the dead slaves.

These spirits become heroes to the boy during this pivotal summer in his life, and the faith he once had in his parents is transferred to them. Listening to Ruth and observing the behavior of the adults around him, Sarge learns that some secrets we keep, while others keep us.

The Colored Garden is a novel about family, about the American past and about a way that we are all connected to each other.