Brent Martin is the author of three chapbook collections of poetry and of The Changing Blue Ridge Mountains: Essays on Journeys Past and Present. His poetry and essays have been published in the North Carolina Literary Review, Pisgah Review, Tar River Poetry, Chattahoochee Review, Eno Journal, New Southerner, Kudzu Literary Journal, Smoky Mountain News and elsewhere. He lives in the Cowee community in Western North Carolina, where he and his wife, Angela Faye Martin, run Alarka Institute.

"If I were making a personal top ten list of important Appalachian artists, writers, and musicians, I’d include—along with more well-known names like Doc Watson and Nikki Giovanni—photographer George Masa. Brent Martin’s introduction splendidly places Masa and his work in the context of the mountains they both love so much—a perfect match since Martin, like Masa, has spent most of his adult life studying the southern mountains, protecting them, exploring them." —Charles Frazier, National Book Award-winning author of Varina"George Masa fascinated people who knew him while he was alive, and his life and work have many of us even more curious (or obsessed) a hundred years later. Brent’s book transcends time with creative insights and reflections on the natural world that honor George Masa’s ‘Wild Vision’. His journey in Masa’s bootprints is at times personal and contemplative and other times communal and philosophical, asking big questions about our appreciation and stewardship of the natural world today. I’m certain Masa would enjoy a campfire chat with Brent." —Paul Bonesteel, Director and founder of Bonesteel Films

Brent Martin is the author of three chapbook collections of poetry and of The Changing Blue Ridge Mountains: Essays on Journeys Past and Present. His poetry and essays have been published in the North Carolina Literary Review, Pisgah Review, Tar River Poetry, Chattahoochee Review, Eno Journal, New Southerner, Kudzu Literary Journal, Smoky Mountain News and elsewhere. He lives in the Cowee community in Western North Carolina, where he and his wife, Angela Faye Martin, run Alarka Institute.

"If I were making a personal top ten list of important Appalachian artists, writers, and musicians, I’d include—along with more well-known names like Doc Watson and Nikki Giovanni—photographer George Masa. Brent Martin’s introduction splendidly places Masa and his work in the context of the mountains they both love so much—a perfect match since Martin, like Masa, has spent most of his adult life studying the southern mountains, protecting them, exploring them." —Charles Frazier, National Book Award-winning author of Varina"George Masa fascinated people who knew him while he was alive, and his life and work have many of us even more curious (or obsessed) a hundred years later. Brent’s book transcends time with creative insights and reflections on the natural world that honor George Masa’s ‘Wild Vision’. His journey in Masa’s bootprints is at times personal and contemplative and other times communal and philosophical, asking big questions about our appreciation and stewardship of the natural world today. I’m certain Masa would enjoy a campfire chat with Brent." —Paul Bonesteel, Director and founder of Bonesteel Films