Earlier this year I was asked by my friend, the hunter/angler poet, Chris Dombrowski, to write a piece for Modern Huntsman, the publication he was newly charged with editing. I thought he may have something specific in mind, but, the only prompt he gave me was “Tell me a story about however you’re currently working with the land that’s most interesting to you.” then he pretty much turned me loose. This was vast and daunting and having nothing to aim at on the horizon made me dizzy, but soon I found my footing toward the only thing I’ve ever really walked toward — stories. (You’ll see what I mean once you read it.) I had fun writing this and I found great value in working with editors. They are doing beautiful, intentional, diligent and dare I say, important, work at Modern Huntsman to showcase the multitudes of lives living and hunting on this planet. This is doubly meaningful for me, as a hunter and as a writer. They provide a space for hunters to represent themselves and their places heartfully in a world where the hunting community is grossly misrepresented by mainstream, commerce-driven media, and they provide a place for writers and photographers to help tell these stories in their own voices and get paid fairly for it. There are truly shocking tales in this Volume Ten about lives on this earth that I couldn’t have even dreamt of - real life is so much cooler than fiction - I hope you’ll go give it a look. They offer a few stories from this volume online to give you a taste, but the book in hand is weighty in all the right ways.
My story is not really a hunting story, and it’s not quite a food story either, but it is about the work I’m doing with the land that I’m most interested in — stories. I hope you like this one. My buddy Dom of LITTLE OUTDOOR GIANTS came and spent two days with me and took these beautiful photos and I could not be more overjoyed that Sal got a centerfold.
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