Book excerpt: Word problems, or story problems, have been a part of mathematical education for the past 4,000 years. This book considers mathematical word problems as a genre, drawing on analytic theory from linguistics, literary criticism, and mathematics education. Raising the question, what are word problems? , this book addresses it by taking a walk around the genre to see it from many points of view, including the linguistic, the historical, and the pedagogical. A Man Left Albuquerque Heading East sheds light on the nature of genre in education and inspires teachers to use word problems in new ways, with different intentions.