Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape brings together forty-five poets and writers to create more than 850 original definitions for words that describe our lands and waters—terms like flatiron, bayou, monadnock, kiss tank, meander bar, and everglade. The writers, including Barbara Kingsolver, Luis Alberto Urrea, Jon Krakauer, Charles Frazier, and Antonya Nelson, draw from careful research as well as on their own distinctive stylistic, personal, and regional diversity to portray in bright, precise prose the striking complexity of the landscapes we inhabit, from Missouri's woody draws to Virginia's runs, from the desire paths of cities to the rondes of midwestern farmlands, from California's bajadas to Alaska's pingos and Hawai'i's shield volcanoes. An advisory board has ensured the scientific accuracy of the prose. Included are 100 black-and-white line drawings by Molly O'Halloran and an introductory essay by Barry Lopez.

At the heart of Home Ground is a community of writers in service to their country, reviving a language that suggests the variety and vastness of the American landscape.