Black Gold: Clearing the smoke on American coal
If I were to mention the words “black gold” you might picture oil (Thank you, Beverly Hillbillies). But the original black gold was coal and it is the title of …
Book Reviews
Writing Opportunity: Nature Chronicles Prize
Here’s a great opportunity to see your work published in anthology and possibly win up to £10,000: We are a biennial, international, English-language literary award proud to have established itself …
Book Review Flashback: Animal Resistance
I had mentioned the passing of author Sarat Colling last month. Today I’d like to revisit her book Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era. We reviewed the book four …
The Omnivore’s Deception: Conscience makes cowards of us all
If the title of this book reminds you of the bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, that is intentional. For as author John Sanbonmatsu writes, Michael Pollan did a …
Habitat, by Case Q. Kerns
Black Lawrence Press, August 2025 In Habitat, a delectably creepy novel-in-stories, set slightly in the future, Case Q. Kerns imagines how late-stage capitalism plays itself out in the worst possible …
Book Review Flashback: How Animals Grieve by Barbara J. King
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly 12 years since I reviewed How Animals Grieve by Barbara King. It’s a powerful book and I still recommend it today. Animals …
New and forthcoming environmental books (August 2025)
There is a maxim that “nothing happens in publishing in the summer.” Apparently, that maxim doesn’t apply to environmental literature — as we’ve seen a wide range of impressive books …
Satellite: Essays of Fatherhood and Home, Near and Far by Simmons Buntin
Terra Firma Books, Trinity University Press, 2025 This fine collection of essays by Simmons Buntin, Satellite: Essays of Fatherhood and Home, Near and Far, leads with lizards. “They are tidy, …
Sea Change wins ASLE Book Award
Congratulations to Christina Gerhardt and the University of California Press for winning the ASLE Book Award for Sea Change. I reviewed this beautiful book awhile back and want reiterate what …
Book Review Flashback: Strange As This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake
In 2014, Midge Raymond reviewed a novel that paved the way for contemporary eco-literature, a powerful indictment of the horrors of mountaintop removal mining. Ann Pancake’s powerful novel Strange as This Weather …
Book Review: Little Great Island
A Novel, by Kate Woodworth Sibylline Press, 2025 Reviewed by JoeAnn Hart Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest… the trees commingle their …