JERRY D. MATHES  grew up a feral child in the deserts of the American Southwest who loved to read library books. He is the author of Ahead of the Flaming Front: A Life on Fire, winner of the North American Book Prize; an essay collection Fever and Guts: A Symphony; The Journal West: Poems; and Of Time and Punishment: A Memoir. Among things he’s done to support his writing and two daughters have been a wildland firefighter on a helicopter-rappel crew and logistics at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica, where he led the Southernmost Writers Workshop in the World.