Dispatch #14 - The Enduring Wild Is Here!

PUBLICATION WEEK + Book Tour Announcement

I am thrilled to report that this book I have been pouring my heart, my body (and the shallow waters of our savings account) into for the past five years is finally here.

It’s officially publication week for The Enduring Wild.

During all those lonely days and nights writing in 2023 and 2024 — especially when putting down words felt like a slog, and my thoughts and typing fingers seemed to be working against each other — I would tell myself that eventually this would be finished, and that one day the physical book would be in my hands.

Now that day is here, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt more grateful in my professional life.

If there was anything that defined a “labor of love,” this book is it for me. If you added up the amount of hours spent reading and researching and driving and walking and writing five complete drafts of the manuscript, my calculations suggest I’ve spent roughly 3,760 hours on this book.

It feels like the best investment I’ve ever made.

Because the story of these lands is more important than ever, as they face unprecedented proposals to sell them off.

So is the story of their biodiversity — the flora, fauna, soil, and watersheds that sustain life — as environmental protections are gutted and extraction takes center stage.

And the story of the Indigenous tribes who have cared for these places since time immemorial, along with the civil servants still trying to steward them for future generations, matters more than ever as budgets are slashed and public land management is quietly hollowed out.

Holding the hard cover in real life for the first time made the gratitude I already felt for my incredible publisher soar into outer space. It is no small feat to organize a hundred photographs, illustrations, story maps, and essays into a cohesive narrative that looks beautiful and flows with ease. But they pulled it off.

The essays were born from five years of circumnavigating California BLM lands and walking some four hundred miles along the way. The pages trace a kind of wandering through landscapes and ideas: pilgrimage, reciprocity, wilderness, the radical center, and the ways we form relationships with place.

And some of my favorite writers and photographers, from QT Luong to Obi Kaufmann to McKenzie Long have given it an enthusiastic thumbs up.

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This first week of sales is arguably the most important, so please consider picking a copy up wherever books are sold:

• My website: the best way to support me as an author, plus you get a free set of illustrated postcards from the book. And I will ship out tomorrow!

• Bookshop.org

• Amazon.com

And if you have read it, and felt some semblance of joy or glee or inspiration, would you leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads? Every review goes a long way in helping steer the algorithm overlords into reaching a wider audience.

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SUMMER BOOK TOUR:

I can’t tell you how excited I am to hit the road - starting this Wednesday, June 25 - for a book tour around the Golden State.

Getting to meet so many of you, sign books, and be in conversation with some of my favorite authors, artists, thinkers, and photographers is going to be awesome. Plus, we will be raising money for Conservation Lands Foundation (June 25), Friends of the Inyo (June 28), and the Golden Gate NPC (July 24).

• June 25, 7pm: Parks Project: CULVER CITY: RSVP HERE

• June 28, 6pm: C5 Studios: BISHOP: RSVP HERE

• July 8, 7pm: Vromans Bookstore: PASADENA: INFO HERE

• July 22, 12pm: CA Natural Resources Agency: SACRAMENTO: INFO

• July 23, 7pm: Green Apple Books: SAN FRANCISCO: RSVP HERE

• July 24, 7pm: Clio’s Books: OAKLAND: INFO HERE

• August 21, 6pm: SB Public Library: SANTA BARBARA: INFO HERE

• August 29, 8pm: Golden State Naturalist: SACRAMENTO: TBD!

• August 30, 4pm: Point Reyes Presbyterian: POINT REYES: TBD!

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From the bottom of my gratitude filled heart, thank-you to all of you who have been following along for many years and to those who have more recently found me here on Substack. This vibrant community of thoughtful nature lovers - and the conversations you spark - have not only brought immense joy, but have pushed and prodded me to sit at the waters edge and think more deeply about this place we call home.

I’ll be back next Sunday with stories and visuals from the wonderfully wild and rushing currents of Northern California’s South Yuba River, just in time for summer.

Josh