The Mad Kayaker is a poet's account of his relationship with wildness both fluvial and human, exploring inner and outer worlds. John Lane's language negotiates the rapids, balancing, with deft control, on the torrents and in the depths. This is a work of maturity, poise, and natural exhilaration.

John Lane is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose, including The Dead Father Poems. His latest, Anthropocene Blues, was released by Mercer University Press. His Abandoned Quarry: New and Selected Poems won the SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) Poetry Book of the Year prize in 2012. He was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 2014. He co-founded the Hub City Writers Project in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and teaches environmental studies at Wofford College there.