Introduction
Wood Thrush Books is a small press specializing in uncommon nature writing -- introspective work that explores the largely uncharted territory beyond Emerson and Thoreau. Established in 1985, this press was originally an outlet for poets living in northern Vermont and other parts of the Northeast. Now it focuses on essays and non-fiction narratives about humanity and the wild. While this press showcases the writings of Walt McLaughlin, it also publishes limited-run chapbooks and paperbacks by Walt Franklin, Benjamin Green and other contemporary nature writers. An anthology of cutting-edge, nature-related poetry and prose appears periodically under the WTB imprint, as well.
The person behind WTB
Walt McLaughlin wanders about the wild country of northern New England and upstate New York whenever he isn’t at home writing or running a small press called Wood Thrush Books. His narrative about hiking Vermont’s Long Trail, Forest Under My Fingernails, was published by Heron Dance Press in 2005. Arguing With the Wind, a memoir about his two-week solo immersion in the Alaskan wilderness, is also in print. So is a collection of shorter narratives, Backcountry Excursions, based upon his treks into the Maine Woods, New Hampshire, and the Adirondacks as well as his home turf: the Green Mountains. McLaughlin holds a degree in philosophy from Ohio University, but insists that most of his thoughts concerning God, humankind and nature come from encounters with the wild itself. He lives in St. Albans, Vermont with his wife, Judy, and an ornery German Shepherd Dog named Matika.
