The Traveling Feast: On the Road and at the Table with America's Finest Writers

After an unexpected, painful divorce, author (For a Little While; All the World To Hold Us) and memoirist Bass opted for a road trip to prepare a memorable meal for his mentors. To add to the fun and flavor, the author describes some of the ingredients he will use, such as freshly dug parsnips. He first dines with the late novelist Peter Matthiessen in New York. Joyce Carol Oates preferred a restaurant in Princeton, NJ. Bass confesses that he was so in awe of her that he hardly noticed what they ate. Terry Tempest Williams lives in Jackson Hole, WY. Despite being ill, she continues working on The Hour of Land, about her political journey through America's national parks. The feast concludes in Bass's home state of Mississippi at the Conference on the Book. There he cooks for Mississippians who were with him from the beginning, an apt conclusion for this unusual entry.