text: [{"text_idx": "#000008", "text": "From refinery operators to long term care nurses, dishwashers to preppers to hockey enforcers, Chemical Valley\u2019s compassionate and carefully wrought stories cultivate rich emotional worlds in and through the dankness of our bio-chemical animacy. Full-hearted, laced throughout with bruised optimism and sincere appreciation of the profound beauty of our wilted, wheezing world, Chemical Valley doesn\u2019t shy away from urgent modern questions\u2014the distribution of toxicity, environmental racism, the place of technoculture in this ecological spasm\u2014but grounds these anxieties in the vivid and often humorous intricacies of its characters\u2019 lives. Swamp-wrought and heartfelt, these stories run wild with vital energy, tilt and teeter into crazed and delirious loves."}, {"text_idx": "#000009", "text": "Here\u2019s what the jurors had to say about Chemical Valley:"}, {"text_idx": "#000010", "text": "\u201cIn this courageous collection David Huebert holds little back as he weaves superbly crafted stories of the dark, difficult, and gritty reality of being human. Whether it be the destructive impact we have on our environment, each other, or ourselves, Huebert tackles this challenge with intelligence and compassion, both in his language and style and in the empathy with which he portrays the human experience. The intertwining of ugliness and beauty, metallic cold and human warmth, and destruction and hope, creates a visceral, hopeful, and rewarding experience for the reader.\u201d"}]