Jason Howard is the author of A Few Honest Words: The Kentucky Roots of Popular Music and coauthor of Something's Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal, which was hailed by the late historian Studs Terkel as "a revelatory work." His features, essays and reviews have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Nation, Sojourners, Paste, No Depression and The Louisville Review, and on NPR. Howard is a former senior editor of Equal Justice Magazine, where he wrote investigative articles on miners' efforts to receive black lung benefits, assisted adoption cases in Manhattan and eminent domain cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In recognition of artistic excellence, he received the 2013 Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction from the Kentucky Arts Council. From 2010-2012, he served as James Still Fellow at the University of Kentucky. A finalist for the 2011 Roosevelt-Ashe Society Outstanding Journalist in Conservation Award, he was chosen as one of five "up and coming" writers by Kentucky Monthly in 2010. Visit his website at www.jason-howard.com.