Winner of the 2021 Monadnock Essay Collection Prize Whiskey Boys: And Other Meditations from the Abyss at the End of Youth is a lively collection of literary essays about bars, booze, and traveling the American West. The book follows the author from small-town Illinois to the West Coast after he abandons a legal career to pursue writing. Much of the narrative concerns growing up and what’s gained and lost with maturity, while considering the challenges of living as a writer in a culture that’s skeptical of the creative arts. Other threads include travel, wanderlust, the psychological effect of place, and mortality.