Josh Viertel
Josh Viertel has been a farmer, activist, bow hunter, fisherman and educator in the sustainable food movement for over 20 years. He served as president of Slow Food USA, the US branch of the global Slow Food movement, during which time he contributed pieces to The Atlantic magazine’s online edition. A founding director of the Yale Sustainable Food Project, he earned his AB in Philosophy and Literature from Harvard and has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Josh has been listed as one of the seven most powerful voices in the food movement by Forbes and Michael Pollan. He lives in the Harlem Valley where he grows, forages, catches or hunts nearly all of what he eats.
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News
Josh Viertel and Jack Viertel are currently working on their debut novel,
THE GLASS EEL,
to be published by Mysterious Press on September 9, 2025.
Books
The Glass Eel
Caterpillar Island is off the central coast of Maine, on the way to the beloved vacationland of lobster bakes and quaint fried clam shacks, kayaking and country houses. At night, though, by the light of a headlamp, the island is alive with cash, guns, international trade wars, and baby eels. Across the surrounding coastline, oxy addicts, trailer park residents, Wabanaki Natives, and out-of-work construction workers dip their nets in the creeks to catch elvers--two-inch-long baby eels that fetch $3000 from unscrupulous smugglers.
Into this dark and often dangerous world falls Jeanette King, a middle-aged divorcée who has, up to this moment, been earning her living holding down three jobs, most importantly as a shucker and packager of local crab meat. As Jeanette gets drawn, at first unwillingly, into a fast-moving story of risk and sometimes violent consequences which seem to revolve around her ex-husband, she enlists the aid of close confederates--a local policeman and an Indigenous activist. An ensuing procession of colorful townies, unexpected plot twists, and dangerous outsiders creates an entertaining, enlightening tale of what happens in the underbelly of a business that is both uncontrolled and environmentally dangerous.
(Mysterious Press, September 2025)