John Yunker 
More than 35,000 people from more than 100 countries visited EcoLit Books this year. And this post shows where they spent most of their time. Here are the top 25 most-visited book reviews and web pages from January until now. The first page is no surprise but the second did surprise me given that it …
When the British colonized India throughout the 18th century they imported their narrative about the relationships between human and non-human animals. A narrative of violence and cruelty, in which wild animals were born to be hunted. But as author Sadhana Naithani writes in The Inhuman Empire, India was home to folk narratives that had existed …
In 1997, J.M. Coetzee delivered two lectures at Princeton University in the form of short stories. These stories ended up in the novella The Lives of Animals, which now is celebrating 25 years. In these stories, Coetzee introduced the world to the character of Elizabeth Costello, a famous Australian novelist who has reached the eff …
I’m happy to share the latest assortment of environmental and animal books that have come our way… please check them out! Birds Beasts and Bedlam By Derek Gow Author of Bringing Back the Beaver and Hunt for the Shadow Wolf, Derek shares his personal, courageous, and highly entertaining tales in Birds, Beasts and Bedlam, including how he raised a …
It’s always great news when a new environmental journal enters the world — or reenters the world. Here’s the update on Sloth: Following a hiatus that began in 2021, ASI is rebooting Sloth, its online peer-reviewed, academic, open-access journal that publishes international, multi-disciplinary work by undergraduate students (scholars within three years of undergraduate degree). Masters and …
Guest book review by Gene Helfman. In Arroyo Circle, JoeAnn Hart deftly weaves a tale with multiple threads. As the story develops, the different characters become incorporated into the fabric through their disparate involvement in a tragedy. But the final product is less a weaving or tapestry and more a spider’s web. The characters, and the …
As we enter fall we (in the Northern Hemisphere) can be grateful for reasons to stay inside — and read. Which leads me to this list of new(ish) and upcoming books that have passed across on desks… Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death By Susana Monsó When the opossum feels threatened, she becomes paralyzed. Her …
From the snake tempting Adam and Eve to the sheep that saved Odysseus from the Cyclops, animals have featured prominently in literature from the very beginning of literature. Today, animals play leading roles in many bestselling novels, from the dog Almondine in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle to Marcellus, the Pacific octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures. In a …
Love Story with Birds, by Derek Furr, is a work of literature that defies easy categorization, which is partly why I enjoyed reading it. By way of poems, essays, stories, and asides I spent a great deal of time alongside Furr, as he watched birds, endured Covid, and cared for a dying dog. Birds play …
I love to share EcoLit Success Stories from authors who have used our extensive list of environmental outlets to find homes for their poetry, stories and essays. So I’d be remiss in not mentioning an essay that I was fortunate to find a home for in The Revelator, an essay on the power of names …
Reading non-fiction books about climate change has, over the years, come to feel like a form of masochism. Rarely do I come away feeling optimistic about the future of this planet and, honestly, it has taken an emotional toll. Which is why I’d much rather read novels that tackle climate change (and not necessarily of …
