Wayward Tracks

For thoughtful authors, writing is far more than an avocation. It is the elemental tool they use to wrestle sense, hope, order—even humor—from this often perplexing and sometimes senseless world we live in. When they write as uncommonly well as Pittsburgh author Mark Collins does in his new offering, Wayward Tracks, their words resonate with our own experience and propel us toward greater clarity about our own lives, our own predicaments.

In Collins’ witty, thought-provoking collection of stories, observations, essays, speeches (real and imagined), and poems, no topic is too mundane or too profound for his wickedly entertaining analysis. We find him as an archeologist digging life’s little treasures from the glove box of the dying family van; or raging at God in a hospital waiting room where there will be no good news tonight; or helping a grieving daughter absorb her young friend’s suicide; or stopping on a street corner to discover the healing power of a kind word.

Listen to the author read "Note to My Daughter's History Teacher" from Wayward Tracks.

“In this wonderful crazy quilt of a book, Mark Collins takes us on a bumpy ride along his neural highways, with plenty of stops along the way to plunge deeply and perceptively into the everyday holiness of our lives.” —Paul Wilkes, author, Your Second to Last Chapter

“Mark Collins is a sneaky good essayist, I think, funny and sad and witty and piercing all at once.” —Brian Doyle, author, So Very Much the Best of Us, and editor, Portland Magazine, University of Portland

“This is a guy book, by a guy, for guys. Women might like it, too, but only if they really want to know how we guys feel about the things we actually think about."—Greg Pierce, author, The Spirituality of Work

“Forget about getting Dad another gaudy necktie for Father’s Day. Wayward Tracks is a gift any thinking family man will cherish and enjoy.”  —The Publisher