Janet L. Finn, PhD Anthropology and Social Work, is pleased to announce the release of her debut novel, Pie in the Sky, by Open Books Publishing. Pie in the Sky is a coming-of-age story cast against a backdrop of political upheaval. Framed around real-life events, from miners’ strikes in Butte, Montana to land occupations in Santiago, the novel traces the intertwining stories of two young women from childhood to the moment when their worlds collide in 1970’s Chile. There they encounter friendship, love, and the terror of state violence.
Janet is the author of several ethnohistorical and social work books including Tracing the Veins: Of Copper, Culture, and Community from Butte to Chuquicamata (1998, University of California Press), Mining Childhood: Growing up in Butte, Montana, 1900-1960 (2012, Montana Historical Society Press), and Just Practice: A Social Justice Approach to Social Work (2026), now in its 5th edition from Oxford University Press.
She is an associate editor for Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work and Professor Emerita, University of Montana School of Social Work.