Take a Walk with Me: Local author publishes book detailing journeys around Gibson County
GIBSON COUNTY’S “WILD BEAUTY” – Stephen Black, author of The Middle of Somewhere, held a book launch last week at Scott’s Pizza & Kitchen. The book details Black’s 190-mile journey around Gibson County. Photo by Logan Watson.
Take a Walk with Me
Local author publishes book detailing journeys around Gibson County
By Kylie Forbes
Gibson County native Stephen Black dreamed about a book centered around his home for fifteen years before the idea began to come to fruition. One day, on the way home from teaching a yoga class, the idea hit him clear as day: Black would take a series of walks in a circle around Gibson County and write about his experience.
Black began his nearly 120-mile journey on Christmas Eve of 2019, taking notes as he trekked 14 miles from Trenton to Rutherford. The next seven walks took place over the course of about nine months, resulting in 200 pages of notes. Organizing, editing, rewriting and restructuring became a journey of its own—but, eventually, The Middle of Somewhere: Eight Walks Through the Tamed Wild of West Tennessee was complete.
During his journey around the county, Black encountered many things that surprised him, but the most important was the natural beauty that exists in such an unsuspecting place. “Before I took the walks, people would find out I was from Tennessee and say, ‘That’s such a beautiful state,’ and I would think, ‘Not my part,’” he said. Many think of Tennessee and think of the mountains on a postcard, but Black found something new to admire about his home state. “There’s a lot of wild beauty here.”
Black encountered much of the local and natural history of Gibson County on his walks, but what changed his understanding the most was his experience in Skullbone. “I think oftentimes you’d think nothing interesting really happens here,” Black said, but he was surprised by the richness of the stories in the area. That’s when he began to get in tune with the depth of the local history in the county he spent his entire life in.
Black said he hopes that fellow Gibson County natives will appreciate the stories from the book, but more than that, he hopes that they will be inspired to tell their own stories. Even in a small rural community like ours, Black is impressed by the diversity of people’s thoughts and experiences. “I would love for other people to basically write the same book from their perspective,” he said, in whatever form that takes. “A place is really an accumulation of stories,” said Black, “and that’s what makes a place a capital-P ‘Place.’”
The Middle of Somewhere: Eight Walks Through the Tamed Wild of West Tennessee was published October 20, 2026 by the University of Tennessee Press. A reading and conversation with author Stephen Black will take place at Gibson County Memorial Library on Thursday, November 19.
