"Southern Appalachia is rich in paradox and stereotype-defying complexity, ecologically, culturally, and artistically. A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia--a hybrid literary and natural history anthology--showcases sixty species of Southern Appalachia, one of the most biodiverse areas on earth, with species accounts, illustrations by seven artists of the region, and poems, most commissioned for the anthology from contemporary writers. From the iconic and inveterate--such as the speckled trout, flying squirrel, copperhead, katydid, and black bear--to the elusive, intermittent, and endangered--whippoorwill, Carolina gorge moss, chucky madtom, lampshade spider--the anthology combines art and science to help the reader experience this region's immense ecological and artistic wealth and to know place in broadest, poetic sense"--