High Country News

Mapping the Hi-Line: A review of Honyocker Dreams

Writer David Mogen sets out to understand his childhood and his rural ancestors, who lived along Montana’s Hi-Line, just below the Canadian border.

by Andrea Clark Mason, Oct 30, 2011
A life of words and wilderness

Rick Bass’ memoir, Why I Came West, describes how his 20-year struggle to save Montana’s Yaak Valley held him hostage, preventing him from concentrating on writing the short fiction that he loves.

by Eric Peterson, Apr 14, 2008
Forces of nature

Amy Irvine’s memoir, Trespass, describes how she moved to rural Utah after her father’s suicide.

by Sara Rubin, Apr 28, 2008
Small-town struggle in a big land

In his first book, The Enders Hotel, Brandon R. Schrand describes a childhood spent growing up in a funky hotel in the small town of Soda Springs, Idaho.

by Andrea Clark Mason, May 12, 2008
A life in the wild

Carter Niemeyer's memoir Wolfer is the entertaining story of a government trapper who loves wildlife - especially serious predators like wolves.

by Hal Herring, Aug 21, 2011
River Town

Flagstaff, Ariz., may not really have its own river, but to many of its residents it is a true river town.

by Christa Sadler, Jun 26, 2011
Generosity of voice and heart: A review of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed's memoir Wild describes her arduous trek along the Pacific Crest Trail as she seeks to recover from life-changing grief.

by Melissa Hart, Mar 18, 2012
Traveling Arizona Highways, in your dreams and on the ground

In 1960, an Illinois mailman falls in love with the desert through the pages of Arizona Highways and hands on his dream -- and a piece of Mohave County --to his son and grandson.

by Tony Fitzpatrick, Mar 29, 2012
The Sum of our Past: Revisiting Pioneer Women

In The Sum of Our Past, Judy Busk weaves personal memoir and historical research together as she retraces the Mormon and Oregon Trails in the modern "covered wagon" of her van

by Staff, Dec 26, 2005
Seeking peace in nuclear times

In Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir, former U.S. Marine Leonard Bird offers a heartbreaking and yet hopeful personal account of nuclear war

by Renee Guillory, Feb 06, 2006