Unsung Heroes of American Industry

Worm farms, pearl-button making, chicken processing, pornography, and beauty pageantry. These quirky cottage industries hold the potential to make fortunes, though it’s more likely that they’ll lead to bankruptcy and shattered dreams. Mark Poirier introduces the misfits and visionaries who embody the aspirations – and frequently the lunacy – of the American entrepreneur. Following his highly acclaimed debut collection, Naked Pueblo, and first novel, Goats, Poirier returns to life on the edge in tales that race across the American landscape, finding individualists and their outrageous professions in every region of the United States, from Washington, D.C., to Southern California, New England to Louisiana.