Painted Forest

Council for Wisconsin Writers Norbert Blei/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award winnerIn this often-surprising book of essays Krista Eastman explores the myths we make about who we are and where were from. The Painted Forest uncovers strange and little-known home placesnot only the picturesque hills and valleys of the authors childhood in rural Wisconsin but also tourist towns the under-imagined and overly caricatured Midwest and a far-flung station in Antarctica where the filmmaker Werner Herzog makes an unexpected appearance.The Painted Forest upends easy narratives of place embracing tentativeness and erasing boundaries. But it is Eastmans willingness to playto follow her curiosity down every odd path to exude a skeptical wonderthat gives this book depth and distinction. An unlikely array of people places and texts meet for close conversation and tension is diffused with art imagination and a strong sense of there being some other way forward. Eastman offers a smart and contemporary take on how we wander and how we belong.