Dispatches from Rural America: Sixteen Essays by Berry, Wendell

A bold and brilliant new collection of essays by one of our most important writers of life in America today

This new collection gathers together for the first time sixteen essays by one of our most revered chroniclers of life in America, a landmark commentary on family, faith, community, and the threats of modernization.

Ranging from the devastating effects of war on children to the endless problems of industrialism and the ubiquitous need for connection and community, Dispatches From Rural America captures a country isolated from its land and beginnings, too focused on mass production and output, and perilously estranged from the spiritual centers that make up the foundation of our lives.

On the cusp of the fiftieth anniversary of Berry's seminal book The Unsettling of America, Dispatches From Rural America is urgent and vital reading in this time of political chaos from one of our most important writers.

Author: Wendell Berry
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
Published: 10/27/2026
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 8.61h x 5.77w x 0.85d
ISBN: 9781640098572

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/27/2026
Kirkus Reviews 10/01/2026
Booklist 10/01/2026

About the Author
WENDELL BERRY (August 5, 1934 - August 31, 2026), was an essayist, novelist, and poet. During his life, he was honored with the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, the John Hay Award of the Orion Society, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, among other distinctions. In 2010, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama, and in 2016, he was the recipient of the Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle. Berry lived with his wife, Tanya Berry, on their farm in Henry County, Kentucky.