To Catch a Craw -- Being West Virginian -- Ain't No Copperhead -- Country Roads : A Brief Primer -- Oh, Possum -- The West Virginia Brown Dog -- Poor, Illiterate, and Strung Out -- Pure, Unadulterated Garbage -- Finding My People -- Dear Richwood -- Blink, Chirp, Buzz : A West Virginia Invertebrate Index -- Intruder Alert -- Behold, the Caddisfly -- Snagging a Spot for Stumpy -- The Value of Wind -- The Place We Belong, Described in Relatively Accurate Terms -- The Pursuit of Everything -- It Never Snowed -- The Flat Earth

"Deep & Wild is the debut essay collection of Laura Jackson. Jackson, a lifelong West Virginian, employs her knowledge of and curiosity for the region to describe life in West Virginia while dismantling stereotypes portrayed in popular media with humor and tenderness. Jackson works to describe what is special about her home, looking head-on at all the ways life in West Virginia may be wonderful and terrible, beautiful and ugly. Moving beyond all-too-common Appalachian stories of hardship and poverty, Jackson's collection revels in joy, family, and nature. Through her essays, Jackson invites readers to peer under creek rocks for crawfish, look a little more fondly at opossums, a road trip to an annual ramp festival, and learn why not to trust a GPS along West Virginia's rugged roads. From her living room to Appalachian hollows, Jackson approaches the sublime, seeking truths in the removal of a stump from her backyard and in John Denver's famous song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads." As Jackson reflects, "As writers, we know it's our job, not only to tell our stories, but to tell the stories of those who came before us, who never had a turn at the microphone.""--

"Essays chronicling the beauty and awe of Appalachia through the eyes of a lifelong West Virginian. Winner of the 2023 Autumn House Nonfiction Prize, Deep & Wild is the debut essay collection of Laura Jackson. Jackson, a lifelong West Virginian, employs her knowledge of and curiosity for the region to describe life in West Virginia as it actually is while dismantling stereotypes portrayed in popular media with humor and tenderness. Jackson works to describe what is special about her home, looking head-on at all the ways life in West Virginia may be wonderful and terrible, beautiful and ugly. Moving beyond all-too-common Appalachian stories of hardship and poverty, Jackson's collection revels in joy, family, and nature. Through her essays, Jackson invites readers to peer under creek rocks for crawfish, look a little more fondly at opossums, a road trip to an annual ramp festival, and learn why not to trust a GPS along West Virginia's rugged roads. From her living room to Appalachian hollows, Jackson approaches the sublime, seeking truths in the removal of a stump from her backyard and in John Denver's famous song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads."--