Merrill Gilfillan is the award-winning short-story writer and poet whose Magpie Rising: Sketches from the Great Plains won the first PEN/Martha Albrand Award for non-fiction. Six years later, Gilfillan returns to the genre with a new collection of poetic essays that grew from his travels along the backroads of Appalachia.
Critical praise for Burnt House to Paw Paw

"He lets the facts rise up in all their riprap in/congruity. He writes of pie, and murders, and when he writes about birdsong and "the like," it may be the most glorious nature writing we've had since Moby Dick."
– Jack Collom

"Burnt House to Paw Paw proves beyond a doubt that Merrill Gilfillan is heir to the gifts of Basho and Thoreau. This is an extraordinary book by a remarkable writer."
– Ray DiPalma

"...he sees time as born of nature and ourselves as children of both."
– New York Times Book Review