Editors' Introduction

Volume 59, Issue 1 of the Southeastern Geographer is a special issue exploring wild foods. This special issue is edited by Dr. Nancy K. O'Hare. Intrigued by a poster at the 2017 SEDAAG meeting in Starkeville, Mississippi, she proposed a special forum for the journal that grew into this dedicated special issue. Foodways are not her research specialty. However, wild foods have played a minor yet enduring part in her life—namely through cooking and eating wild game and fish provided by others. Likewise, wild foods may be a minor part of many reader's lives, yet the connections might also have left indelible impressions. For many geographers, urban food deserts and foodways may be more common research topics. Yet, foraging for edible or medicinal plants, fishing, oystering, and hunting remain as links to Southern food-ways of the past.

Also included are two book reviews, each related to foodways. Catarina Passidomo reviews The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty. This book documents the culinary journey of the author as he explored his roots as a descendant predominantly of enslaved African Americans but also White slave-owners. Nancy Hoalst-Pullen reviews The Community Food Forest Hand-book: How To Plan, Organize and Nurture Edible Gathering Places by Catherine Bukowski and John Munsell. Food forests in urban areas—like community urban gardens—provide a different sort of connection to producing food that is a hybrid of permaculture and agroforestry. The authors cover not only the mechanics of managing the physical space, but also guidelines for leveraging the human component that will influence the sustainability of the food forest.

This issue also marks the beginning of our last year as Editors. To keep pace with changing technology and dissemination, we are allowing the option for authors to include hashtags after keywords. We are also actively working with the new editorial team to assure a smooth transition.

As always, we conclude by inviting more proposals for themed issues of Southeastern Geographer, as well as inviting readers to continue submitting their excellent work to the journal. If you would like to organize a themed issue, please send a 2-page proposal highlighting the summary, justification, list of specific research areas, and potential author names/affiliation (if already known) to segeditors@uga.edu.