KRISTA EASTMAN

he Painted Forest (West Virginia University Press, October), a debut collection of essays investigating the myths we make about who we are and where we’re from; a lyrical excavation of rural Wisconsin, tourist towns, and the “under-imagined and overly caricatured” Midwest. Agent: None. Editor: Derek Krissoff. First lines: “This tubby steel machine, this 1978 Chevy Malibu station wagon, careens a large family forward, makes tinny the sound of our quarrels and