JEFF BIGGERS is an American Book Award-winning historian, journalist, and playwright. Recipient of the David Brower Award for Environmental Reporting, the Delta Award for Literature, and the Plattner Award for Appalachian Literature, among other honors, he is the author of the landmark book The United States of Appalachia and numerous other works of cultural history and investigative reporting. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Atlantic Monthly and on Salon.com, National Public Radio, and Public Radio International. Biggers lives in Iowa.