A Field Guide the SUbterranean: A Memoir

Forthcoming from COunterpoint PRess 6.10.2025

A radically inventive excavation of one man’s life 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 springs pools. His homelife, too, was plagued by an underground pattern 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 each other 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 narrative with expansions into 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 genre of nature writing.

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WHITE OUT: Erasing Trump
E-Zine Volume One

Beginning in May 2020, I gave myself the challenge of performing 100 erasures on Trump’s The Art of the Deal in 100 Days. What’s emerged has been surprising, infuriating, and generally pretty hilarious.

Volume One of WHITE OUT: ERASING DONALD TRUMP contains twenty-five erasures, and is now available as a full color E-zine in a readable PDF format.

To purchase the zine, please pay what you will using my one-step PAYPAL LINK. Suggested donation is $3. ALL PROCEEDS from the sale of WHITE OUT Volume One will be donated to Portland’s Black Resilience Fund. Please make sure to include your EMAIL ADDRESS with your payment, and designate “Volume One,” so I can email you directly with the correct PDF.

You can also support the project by becoming a member of my new PATREON community.