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The Little Library

The Little Library

A few years ago my brother-in-law built an outdoor library with a long, tall window he found at the dump. I had wanted a Little Library for a while, and I registered it with Little Free Library, Charter #159455. Almost every day, I notice people stopping by, perusing...

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Rest in peace Gregory L. Norris

Rest in peace Gregory L. Norris

Greg Norris died on Monday, May 5. He was the most enthusiastic writer to attend my second independent writing workshop back in 2016. Since then, I have remained in touch with him and a writing group he started and mostly led for many years in Berlin, New Hampshire. I...

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Hello

Welcome! I am a writer, editor, and college lecturer based in New England. I explore people’s relationship to their landscapes. I hope you will stay here a while and get to know my work.

My new book Going Over the Mountain traces my evolution as a wilderness trekker. I followed others. I tried to teach my daughters resilience. I went alone. I came back to community. It came out in September 2023 from Appalachian Mountain Club Books. Order one direct from the publisher here.

My next book explores my farmer ancesters in New Jersey. My grandfather decided he didn’t want to be a farmer and at age 18 with a new wife and baby on teh way he left the Bridgeton, New Jersey area, never to live there again, changing the trajectory of his children and grandchildren. While rsearching this amazing story, I wrote a chapter about smalltime farmers and how they dealt with the industrial agriculture that took over starting int he mid-1800s for a book coming out soon from Rutgers University Press.

I am the editor-in-chief of  Appalachia journal (submit button at the bottom of the page). 

I teach journalism history at the University of Connecticut.

Libertarians on the Prairie tells how a secret collaboration on the Little House books reshaped the nineteenth-century American frontier story into a series of heroic tales that rebutted the policies of the New Deal. Libertarians on the Prairie is available in hardback and a paperback edition with a Foreword by Stephen Heuser.  Order one today.

 

Going back in time a bit: I appeared in Don Bernier’s 2005 film, “In a Nutshell,” about a brilliant, eccentric artist who found herself homeless in her 90s. A clip here.

 

 

Writing Workshops

New routes to new ideas

The Bears Next Door

The Bears Next Door

A short walk from a suburban driveway in Canton, Connecticut, a black bear and her cub sleep in their den, a shallow depression in leaf duff underneath a small brush pile and a few downed trees. State biologists Jason Hawley and Melissa Ruszczyk and technicians...

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To Hear a Forest

To Hear a Forest

One warm morning I took a break while hiking near Cardigan Mountain. I sat on a tent platform in an empty campsite and swung my boots over the platform edge. The leaves began to rustle, first faintly, then louder and louder, the way they do when the wind kicks up. I...

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Would you like to submit to Appalachia journal?

Email a short proposal to me: chris@chriswoodside.com.

Would you like to order Going Over the Mountain?