Brent Martin and his wife, Angela Faye Martin run Alarka Institute, a nature, literary, and art-based business that offers workshops and field trips. The live in Cowee, North Carolina. He is the author of three poetry chapbooks and a non-fiction chapbook as well as a co-author - with Barbara Duncan and Thomas Rain Crowe - of Every Breath Sings Mountains (2011). Martin is the author of all the dozen essays in this book, but they relate his journeys to the journeys of others who traveled the Blue Ridge Mountains, starting with William Bartram, the eighteenth century naturalist. “Read this beautifully written and thought-provoking book” – Charles Frazier. “I plan to give this collection to a few friends who will love it, and mail it to a few assholes who desperately need its salvation, wisdom, and light.” – John Lane. “Brent Martin . . . writes of wilderness and waterfalls and flowers and fish in prose both clear and passionate. In short, he’s both naturalist and poet. Treasure this collection.” – Wayne Caldwell.
Charleston, South Carolina: History Press, 2019. 141 pages with a foreword by George Ellison, an index and photos. Trade paperback.