Off the beaten path

the long version

"Readers are taken on a literary journey through wild and wonderful landscapes in this new collection, which focuses on conservation in an unusual way - by exploring the importance of place through the short story. Long dedicated to the preservation of wild places, The Nature Conservancy asked writers to visit one of its preserves or write from past experience outdoors, allowing a place to trigger their imagination and make a story possible. Several authors were inspired by the landscapes of their youth (Jill McCorkle's North Carolina woods, Richard Bausch's Blue Ridge Mountains), while others, like Eric Lustbader, who trekked to Alaska, explored territory unfamiliar to them."--BOOK JACKET.