Deer America: Rewilding begins outside your front door
Deer are a common sight here in Ashland, Oregon. And a common source of conflict between residents. Some want to see the deer killed and others (like us) want to …
Animal Behavior
Book Review: The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
Studies of animal intelligence have demonstrated the impressive cognitive abilities of certain animals: rhesus macaques, crows, bottlenose dolphins, border collies. Recently, there is another animal gaining increasing recognition for its …
Book Review: Touching Creatures, Touching Spirit by Judy Grahn
The stories and essays of Touching Creatures, Touching Spirit: Living in a Sentient World form a beautiful tapestry of communications across species and consciousness. From grateful dragonflies to fatherless strawberries to companionable …
Book Review: IN THE COMPANY OF MEN
Véronique Tadjo’s slender, haunting novel In the Company of Men offers myriad points of view—human and nonhuman—in its story of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014. Published in …
Book Review: The Meaning of Birds by Simon Barnes
In The Meaning of Birds, Simon Barnes traces the history of birds—as well as humans’ relationships and interactions with them—over several millennia and across multiple continents. Barnes is a UK-based …
Book Review: The Shark Club
Ann Kidd Taylor’s novel, The Shark Club, is not only a delightful read as we head into spring and summer “beach reading” time, but it is a much-needed antidote to Peter …
Eastern Oregon University offers new MFA concentration focused on Wilderness, Ecology, and Community
A year ago we began compiling a list of writing programs with a focus on the environment and animals. The latest addition to the list is EOU’s new low-residency MFA …
Book Review: The Reign of Wolf 21
The Druid Wolf Pack of Yellowstone National Park has garnered international notoriety over the last 20 years. Established in the mid-1990s, the Druid Wolf Pack was at one point the …
Announcing Writing for Animals: A 4-week writing program
I’m pleased to announce a rather unique program to be taught next month by myself and Midge Raymond. I hope you can join us… Writing for Animals is a four-week …
Maverick: A life among animals, reconsidered
At the opening of the essay collection Maverick, Laura Jean Schneider writes: I’m in the third generation of butchers in my family. As a family, we slaughtered and butchered most …
Book Review: World of Wonders; In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
No one sees nature quite like a poet and Aimee Nezhukumatathil proves that in World of Wonders, her first book of prose. This collection of essays centers around Nezhukumatathil’s lifelong interactions with and observations of the natural world. Born to a Filipina mother and a father from South India, Nezhukumatathil grew up all over the United States due to the demands of her mother’s job as a psychiatrist, and was immersed in landscapes from New York to Arizona. She writes from both the poet’s perspective and as a person of color in a white-privileged world.
