"A feral child finds a family. An old bottle washes up with a note inside. A boy's stuffed elephant flies out the car window. Over two decades, Lane DeGregory's stories of ordinary people struggling with love and loss, pain and perseverance, have earned her a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing and enhanced the Tampa Bay (formerly St. Petersburg) Times's reputation for publishing pioneering literary nonfiction. DeGregory has also built a worldwide fan base not just among readers of the Times but among journalists and narrative writers of all stripes, who seek out her advice on how to find, report, and write compelling true narratives. This volume collects for the first time twenty-four of her best stories, each accompanied by behind-the-scenes notes about how she convinced that person to speak to her, got that memorable quote, built that evocative scene. The book's unique format makes it both an anthology for readers who love her stories and a guide to craft for those who want to write their own. It includes a foreword by Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, introducing readers who have not yet discovered DeGregory to her creative and inspiring body of work"--