profile

Sibylline Press

She went to Guatemala to teach. She found a war.

Published about 12 hours ago • 1 min read

All Things Hidden: A Witness to Paradise Lost

by Lesley Miles

She came to Guatemala to teach organic gardening—only to find herself in the opening days of a hidden war.

In 1977, twenty-one-year-old Lesley Miles arrived in the remote Ixcán jungle to help a cooperative of Maya families build a sustainable future. But as she worked to establish an agricultural center, the region was quietly becoming a battleground—caught between the Guatemalan military, guerrilla forces, and global interests.

Stranded when her organization collapsed, Lesley witnessed the beginning of a devastating campaign that would destroy entire villages and claim over 200,000 lives.

Forty years later, her journals and photographs reveal a powerful firsthand account of hope, survival, and a conflict the world ignored.

Some stories wait decades to be told. This is one you won’t forget.

“... the breathtaking and daring story of one woman’s relatively innocent entry into a benevolent Mayan community-building experience in Guatemala where she discovers a deep and dangerous complexity of American involvement in arms dealing, proxy wars, and genocide.

—Lidia Yuknavitch, National Bestselling author of The Chronology of Water

About the Author

Lesley Miles, a practicing architect for 40 years has designed schools, libraries and community spaces. She wrote her first story about her grandfather, an ANZAC in WWI, while in New Zealand in 2018. Reading, A London Love Story, on a KQED Perspectives segment encouraged her to start writing about her experiences in Guatemala in the late 1970s.

Her memoir All Things Hidden: A Witness to Paradise Lost, covers her time in Ixcán, Guatemala, her return and search for what happened to the community.

Studying with Corporeal Writing, writer Haley Campbell, and author and teacher Jordan Rosenfeld, she writes as she notes, just the facts. When she left Ixcán in 1979, she stored textiles, letters, journals and photos of the two years she had lived in a village of 15 families. Unboxing this hidden period of her life, she relives this time, writing of her experiences including a historical perspective.

Her Substack, I’ve Got a Story for That, runs the gamut from architecture and Guatemala to stories about war, pets, children and plants. https://www.lesleylmiles.com/

Friday, April 17, 6 PM | Morgan Hill, CA.

All Things Hidden Book Launch with Lesley Miles in conversation with author Jordan Rosenfeld

This launch event is SOLD OUT, but stay tuned for a video of the sold out event!

Publishing the Brilliant Work of Women Authors over 50

Sibylline Press

Publishing the Brilliant Work of Women Authors Over 50

Receive weekly Pub Date Friday emails and monthly online reflections about the book Industry for readers & authors! Compiled by wise women of a certain age. SIGN UP AND RECEIVE 10% OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER FROM OUR BOOKSTORE!

Read more from Sibylline Press
The Star on the Grave

The Star on the Grave: A Novel by Linda Margolin Royal The incredible true story of the Japanese diplomat who defied his government to save thousands from the Nazis is now an award-winning historical novelIn 1940, as the Nazis sweep towards Lithuania, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara defies his government and secretly issues visas to fleeing Jewish refugees. After the war Sugihara is dismissed and disappears into obscurity. Nearly three decades later, in Australia, Rachel Margol is shocked...

4 days ago • 1 min read
Into the Wilderness

Into the Wilderness: A Novel by Deborah Lee Luskin Could two people be more different? It’s 1964. Rose Mayer is recently widowed—Jewish, outspoken, and a lifelong Democrat from the city. Percy Mendell is a quiet Vermont farmer who has never married and has never voted for a Democrat in his life. When they meet, sparks fly—but not the romantic kind. Yet as the seasons turn across the rugged Vermont landscape, irritation gives way to curiosity, and curiosity to something far more unexpected. At...

7 days ago • 1 min read
Hurricane Lessons

New release from Sibylline Press! MEMOIR | Trade Paper: 9798897400140 $19 | Epub: 9798897400157 $9.99 Hurricane Lessons A Memoir of Betrayal and Becoming Katrina Anne Willis To become herself, she must survive the storm When Katrina, a 46-year-old Midwestern mother of four, becomes consumed with feelings for her female Pilates instructor, she begins to understand that she is and always has been gay. Her husband suggests they open up their 20+ year marriage, which appears to be a reasonable...

11 days ago • 1 min read