Ken Ilgunas

In this memoir, Ken Ilgunas lays bare the existential terror of graduating from the University of Buffalo with $32,000 of student debt. Ilgunas set himself an ambitious mission: get out of debt as quickly as possible. Inspired by the frugality and philosophy of Henry David Thoreau, Ilgunas undertook a 3-year transcontinental journey, working in Alaska as a tour guide, garbage picker, and night coo

“The Stampede Trail has become a passageway on which hikers and hunters, seekers and sportsmen, Speedoed mountain bikers and North Slope militiamen cross paths. The Magic Bus is becoming a national shrine, a holy pilgrim site, a modern-day Mecca. And I was determined to see it, too.” So writes Ken Ilgunas, who, in the summer of 2011, moved up to Alaska to, like thousands before him, embark on a pi

"I wanted to explore, and I saw it as my right as a free human being of this planet to harmlessly walk through my neighboring woods and fields. My only rule was to stay within the borders of Wheatfield. And to walk every step of the way." So writes author and adventurer Ken Ilgunas in this tiny book / long essay about his three-day journey through his hometown—an absurd, bizarre, and sometimes cra

Winner of the Nebraska Center for the Book Award, Travel • A Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award Notable Book • Honoree of the Society of Midland Authors Annual Literary Award for Biography/MemoirNow that President Donald Trump has revived the Keystone XL pipeline that was rejected by former President Obama, Trespassing Across America is the book to help us understand the kaleido

Private property is everywhere. Almost anywhere you walk in the United States, you will spot "No Trespassing" and "Private Property" signs on trees and fence posts. In America, there are more than a billion acres of grassland pasture, cropland, and forest, and miles and miles of coastlines that are mostly closed off to the public. Meanwhile, America's public lands are threatened by extremis