Kevin Koch will read from  and share images from his new regional nature book, Midwest Bedrock: The Search for Nature’s Soul in America’s Heartland.

“Kevin Koch’s Midwest Bedrock eloquently redefines and reimagines that fuzzy obscure geographic region that outsiders often describe as drive-through or fly-over country.  “What exactly is the Midwest?” Koch asks in the intro.  The question serves as a kind of reflective trailhead for the book.  His search for the answer is equal parts natural history, memoir, and travelogue, and includes a chapter-long visit to all twelve midwestern states.   From the headwater of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca, to Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail, to to Iowa’s Effigy Mounds, to Ohio’s Hocking Hills, Koch is an attentive and thoughtful guide, who leads readers to the natural wonders and beauty of America’s heartland. Reading the book is a literal re-membering of a region that few have seen or considered with such insight and clarity. ” -Tom Montgomery Fate

Kevin Koch is author of Skiing At Midnight: A Nature Journal from Dubuque County, Iowa; The Driftless Land: Spirit of Place in the Upper Mississippi Valley; and The Thin Places: A Celtic Landscape from Ireland to the Driftless. More of his work, including shorter works on outdoor places and photos, can be viewed at https: //www.kevinkochdriftlessland.net/. Koch is Professor of English at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa