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Book Talk October 15 at Bank Square Books
Save the date. I will give a talk and reading from my wilderness memoir Going Over the Mountain at the new location of Bank Square Books, 80 Stonington Road, Mystic, Connecticut, on Tuesday, October 15 at 6 p.m. Going Over the Mountain: One Woman's Journey from...
I’ll be on Hiker Trash Radio June 3
Pick up your favorite trail snacks and get ready to hear my hiking story on Hiker Trash Radio, the podcast where Doc introduces you to all sorts of characters who have taken the trail into themselves and become different people in the process. The episode with me...
Going Over the Mountain reading at Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Join me for my next reading from Going Over the Mountain, Wednesday, October 18 from 5-6 p.m. at Wesleyan R.J. Julia Bookstore! Sign up here. Get your own copy and have it signed. I will read you a story. A chapters other audiences haven't heard yet. I've read to...
Launch party on September 10 at Breakwater Books. Reading September 13 at the Norwich Bookstore in Vermont
Breakwater Books will host a launch party on Sunday, September 10 at 5 p.m. at their store at 18 Whitfield Street in Guilford, Connecticut. Thank you, Breakwater! The Norwich Bookstore will host my next reading and talk on September 13 starting at 7...
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
Libertarians on the Prairie
by Chris Woodside read more
Going Over the Mountain
Order your copy or e-book today! Going Over the Mountain is a gorgeous tale of finding strength—and peace—in the mountains, and of raising girls to do the same. It’s a reflection on entering the woods as a follower, a solo traveler, a parent, and in community, for...
Citizen Scientists Steer Efforts to Jump-Start Black Rock Harbor’s Recovery
This group devoted many early mornings in spring and summer as citizen scientists taking water samples to test the quality. Pictured are: Holly Turner, a teacher at the Bridgeport Regional Vocational Aquaculture School; Lyle Given, and Charlotte Hickey, both students....
Foul Spills at Black Rock Harbor Will Go On for Decades
On the west and east sides of narrow Black Rock Harbor in western Bridgeport, industry, school, recreation and sewage treatment converge. At the most inland tip are Santa Energy’s oil tanks. On the east side stretch asphalt runways at Pratt & Whitney’s test...
Dead Fish, Condoms, Brown Foam: Sewage Has Chokehold On Black Rock Harbor
On April 25, 2018, Patrick Clough walked onto a dock at Fayerweather Yacht Club on Black Rock Harbor in western Bridgeport. He looked down. Swirling around the dock was a brown, foamy slick. Women’s sanitary products and other objects floated in it. He...
Long Island Sound to Lobsters: Is This Farewell?
A lobster from southern New England is offered for sale at the Fulton Fish Market in New York City in 1943. Source: Library of Congress archives Twenty years ago, Long Island Sound was home to a thriving fishery of the American lobster. Hundreds of lobster boats...
