A Field Guide to the Subterranean Hardcover by Justin Hocking

Product Details

• Publisher: Counterpoint (2025-06-10)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 224 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781640097018
• Item Weight: 379.89 grams
• Dimensions: 8.55 x 5.76 x 0.8 cm

A radically inventive excavation of one man’s life and our relationship to the earth by the critically acclaimed author of The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld

Justin Hocking grew up in a part of Colorado where so many things happened beneath the surface—mining exploits, underground nuclear testing just thirty miles from his family’s home, and geothermal activity that heats one of the world’s largest hot spring pools. His homelife, too, was plagued by hidden patterns of abuse and virulent masculinity. A Field Guide to the Subterranean charts the author’s lifelong process of unearthing the past and reclaiming his own identity and connection to the natural world.

How might we transform our traumas into deeper care for one another and the landscapes that sustain us? How do we transcend the mythos of the rugged American male so rooted in extraction and exploitation? And how far can we move beyond the self in a memoir? Hocking explores these and other vital questions by combining personal introspection with expansive narratives that examine geology, ecology, gender theory, mining history, labor rights, and even skateboarding. 

Abundant with historical research and teeming with birdlife—and ranging in location from remote caves and mountains to secluded surf breaks in Costa Rica—A Field Guide to the Subterranean heralds a boldly original and kaleidoscopic approach to the genres of memoir and nature writing.

About the Author

JUSTIN HOCKING is the author of The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld: A Memoir, which won the Oregon Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Award for Nonfiction. He served as the Executive Director of the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) from 2006–2014 and is a recipient of the Willamette Writers Humanitarian Award for his work in writing, publishing, and literary outreach. He teaches creative writing in the MFA and BFA Programs at Portland State University.