The Middle of Somewhere

“The Middle of Somewhere proves that a familiar landscape is never as simple as it seems.”—Joanna Brichetto, author of This is How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature

How do the landscapes of our childhoods shape the people we become? Can wildness be found wherever we seek it? In The Middle of Somewhere, Stephen Black sets out on foot to answer these questions.

Facing his father’s and his own mortality, Black realizes he does not want to die a stranger to his own homeland. So, he embarks on a yearlong journey of eight walks, forming a rough circle around Gibson County, Tennessee.

As Black treks through highways, back roads, field edges, creeks, and small towns, he uncovers the region’s layered natural, cultural, and personal histories. Attentive to the turning seasons, he observes wildlife and weather, gathers local lore, and traces the consequences of human land alteration over two centuries. Along the way, he finds himself pursued by memory as much as by geography, chasing ghosts, and letting ghosts chase him.

The Middle of Somewhere is a quiet, searching memoir of place, mourning, and belonging—an account of walking intentionally into the familiar with the heart to see what’s really there.