Michael Perry is a New York Times bestselling author, humorist, corporate speaker, volunteer firefighter/first responder, and amateur snowplow driver. A lifelong resident of the rural Midwest, his “reflective roughneck” takes on life in Middle America have left hundreds of thousands of readers and live audiences laughing, nodding, and sometimes misty.

The author of over 25 books including Population 485, Truck: A Love Story, Forty Acres Deep, and Peaceful Persistence. Perry’s latest title is Improbable Mentors & Happy Tangents: How firefighters and poets, truckers and nurses, soldiers and singers, and other improbable individuals can show you the way in business and creativity.

Perry, a registered nurse who put himself through college working as a Wyoming cowboy and a roller-skating Snoopy produces the popular audio newsletter “Mi ...