Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Discovery-Spring 1996 -- First Night -- Camp Man -- Crazy Dan -- City People -- Cloverleaf -- Swamp Writer -- Hurricane Georges -- Man Tools -- Water Hunter -- Swamp Camp -- The White Car -- Carson -- Homesick -- Risks and Changes -- Butch -- The Trailer Park -- Man Talk -- Catching Alligators -- Kitchen Music -- Football -- Late-Night Visitors -- Chuckfee Revival -- Neighbors -- Deltona 500 -- Boats on the Loose -- The Slough -- The Boat Slip -- Mayhall -- Delta Heckler -- Camp Names -- Red -- Horace -- Bottle Creek -- No-Name -- Random Proud -- Best Friends -- Big Generator -- The Dark Ages -- Airboat -- The Phone Call -- Back to the Mud -- The Deal -- More Hurricanes -- Stepping Out -- Big Generator 2 -- Famous -- Christmas Gift -- End of an Era.

Among the Swamp People is the story of author Watt Key's discovery of the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. "The swamp" consists of almost 260,000 acres of wetlands located just north of Mobile Bay. There he leases a habitable outcropping of land and constructs a primitive cabin from driftwood to serve as a private getaway. His story is one that chronicles the beauties of the delta's unparalleled natural wonders, the difficulties of survival within it, and an extraordinary community of characters-by turns generous and violent, gracious and paranoid, hilarious and reckless-who live, thrive, and perish there.   There is no way into the delta except by small boat. To most it would appear a maze of rivers and creeks between stunted swamp trees and mud. Key observes that there are few places where one can step out of a boat without "sinking to the knees in muck the consistency of axle grease. It is the only place I know where gloom and beauty can coexist at such extremes. And it never occurred to me that a land seemingly so bleak could hide such beauty and adventure."   It also chronicles Key's maturation as a writer, from a twenty-five-year-old computer programmer with no formal training as a writer to a highly successful, award-winning writer of fiction for a young adult audience with three acclaimed novels published to date.   In learning to make a place for himself in the wild, as in learning to write, Key's story is one of "hoping someone-even if just myself-would find value in my creations.".

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.