Award-winning writer Jeanne Marie Laskas has been called “a reporting and writing powerhouse” (Rebecca  Skloot). Laskas proves it once again in Hidden America, an Oprah Must-Read Best Book that explores the lives of the millions of Americans who only rarely capture our attention or our compassion. From coal miners to cowboys to cheerleaders, Laskas employs her “intimate, insightful journalism” (Mike Sager) to teach us about the people who keep our lives running smoothly. A transformative, entertaining, and sometimes hilarious book, Hidden America makes it, as the Daily Beast concluded, “impossible not to see the world a little differently.”

Before Hidden America, Laskas wowed readers and critics alike with a trilogy of memoirs: Fifty Acres and a Poodle, The Exact Same Moon, and Growing Girls. Her long-form journalism has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Allure, Ladies' Home Journal, and many others. Laskas has also been a regular contributor to Esquire, GQ, the Washington Post Magazine, and Reader's Digest. Her work has frequently been anthologized in the Best American collections, and she has received several Gold Quill Awards for excellence in journalism. Laskas is the Director of the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh.