Ernest Hebert is best known for his novels. His first book, The Dogs of March , was published in 1979 and cited for excellence by the Hemingway Foundation. It was the first of seven novels in his Darby Chronicles series, which painted a vivid portrait of working class life in rural New Hampshire. (Scroll down to the end to read Ernest Hebert's top five reading recommendations.) Now the 76-year-old Hebert, who retired from teaching at Dartmouth College a few years ago, has published something new: a collection of poetry that includes some of his own artwork. It's called The Contrarian Voice . Down in the basement of his and his wife Medora's modest red cape in Westmoreland, N.H. is where Hebert keeps his writing studio. "This is where I work," he says. "The rest of the house belongs to Medora." The floors are concrete, and it's slightly colder here than it was upstairs. The windows offer a view of Hebert's woodpile, stone walls, and a forest of red oak, birch, and beech trees. He says