From working as a timber faller and a tree doctor to profiling environmental protestors and parsing through his own preoccupations with Ken Kesey, Fred Haefele has followed his curiosity into the most extraordinary corners of the place he’s chosen to call home. This anthology of seventeen pieces of nonfiction gives us access not only to one of our most talented writers, it shows us the unique emotional and social topography of a region. It’s an essential addition to any western bookshelf.

Fred Haefele’s essays have appeared in Outside, Wired, The New York Times Magazine, American Heritage, Salon.com, Montana Magazine and Newsday. He has received literary fellowships from The Fine Arts Work Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Stanford University. He is the author of the award-winning motorcycle memoir Rebuilding the Indian (Riverhead Books, 1998, Bison Books, 2005). Haefele has taught creative writing at the University of Montana and at Stanford, where he was a Jones Lecturer. He lives in Missoula, Montana, with his wife, writer Caroline Patterson, and their two children.

From working as a timber faller and a tree doctor to profiling environmental protestors and parsing through his own preoccupations with Ken Kesey, Fred Haefele has followed his curiosity into the most extraordinary corners of the place he’s chosen to call home. This anthology of seventeen pieces of nonfiction gives us access not only to one of our most talented writers, it shows us the unique emotional and social topography of a region. It’s an essential addition to any western bookshelf.

Fred Haefele’s essays have appeared in Outside, Wired, The New York Times Magazine, American Heritage, Salon.com, Montana Magazine and Newsday. He has received literary fellowships from The Fine Arts Work Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Stanford University. He is the author of the award-winning motorcycle memoir Rebuilding the Indian (Riverhead Books, 1998, Bison Books, 2005). Haefele has taught creative writing at the University of Montana and at Stanford, where he was a Jones Lecturer. He lives in Missoula, Montana, with his wife, writer Caroline Patterson, and their two children.