The editor, himself a committed hunter, has assembled a distinguished group of writers, including Edward Abbey, Rick Bass, Jimmy Carter, A.B. Guthrie Jr., Jim Harrison, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, and Terry Tempest Williams. Expressing a sentiment most of these writers share, Richard K. Nelson writes in the book's introduction: "Hunting sharpens my awareness that I am an animal, not separate from my fellow creatures but twisted together with them in one great.

Braidwork of life. Hunting brings me into the wild and brings the wild into me."