Deep Wild Journal

Deep Wild 2024 is in the works!

Well-made words from wild places: That’s what each issue of Deep Wild: Writing from the Backcountry holds: 160+pages of stories, essays, and poems by dozens of writers, in celebration of and in defense of places where there are no roads. The journal is printed on FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) paper in a compact, durable format. It wants to go camping!

The 2024 issue, our sixth, will be hitting the mails and the trails this June. Thank you to Santa Fe artist Kathleen Frank for her magnificent oil-on-canvas painting, “Glacier Peaks,” which graces our front cover. The issue also contains a portfolio of landscape drawings from the Northern Rockies by Tucson artist Andrew Lincoln Nelson, and the well-made words of 49 writers, including the winners of our Graduate Student Prose Contest.

Click here for ordering options. We offer free shipping anywhere in the U.S.!

Wild Words Await You!

If you love wild places and good words, please consider supporting our mission. We are a not-for-profit journal funded entirely by subscriptions and donations. Follow this link for various subscription options. To read excerpts from published work (and other wild news of note), subscribe to our blog or visit our archive. Students and teachers, we have a special page for you.

Books from Deep Wild Press

Deep Wild Press publishes one or two titles a year, currently by invitation. Our goal is to bring high-quality literature true to the mission of Deep Wild Journal into the hands of readers at affordable prices. Currently, we offer four titles. To learn more about Deep Wild Books and their authors, and to read some choice excerpts, visit https://deepwildjournal.com/books/

**Marcia Hensley**, author of the acclaimed Staking Her Claim: Women Homesteading the West, shares the story of her own journey from a conservative upbringing in Tulsa to a freer, fuller life in rural Wyoming.

In 27 compact, lively essays, life-long backpacker Rick Kempa writes about the pains and pleasures, surprises and simplicities, soul-satisfying rhythms and just plain joy familiar to all who take to the trail.

**Wyoming Poet Laureate Barbara Smith offers richly-imagined stories of pioneer women of the West and of her own family’s multi-generational history in Montana and Wyoming**

To view the Contents and Forewords for our first five issues, keep scrolling!

Deep Wild 2023: Foreword and Contents

About Our 2022 issue:

The 2022 issue of Deep Wild: Writing from the Backcountry offers our largest gathering yet of writing inspired by places where there are no roads, by 25 poets, 6 fiction writers, and 20 essayists—including the winners of the Deep Wild Graduate Student Essay Contest. Also featured is a portfolio of multi-media work by California-based artist Andie Thrams. The cover art is by Utah artist Bessann Swanson. Scroll down a bit to read the Foreword and Table of Contents. To claim your copy at our Holiday Sale discount, and to check out our bargain bundles, visit our Subscribe/Support page.

Deep Wild 2022: Foreword and Contents

dw4-2022-foreword-2 Download

dw4-2022-table-of-contents Download

Deep Wild 2021: Foreword and Contents

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Deep Wild 2020: Foreword and Contents

If you love wild places and good words, please consider supporting our mission—to provide a home for creative work inspired by journeys to places where there are no roads—with a subscription for yourself and/or a friend. We are a not-for-profit enterprise with an all-volunteer staff. Thanks, and happy hiking!

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Deep Wild 2019: Foreword and Contents

The 2019 issue of Deep Wild Journal has nearly sold out, but a few copies are still available, for $40 plus $4 shipping. The volume is 130 pages, and contains the work of 37 writers and three artists. Contact deepwildorders@gmail.com to request a copy.