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 Benchley’s Jaws. Rather than instill fear in readers, The Shark Club highlights the importance of these four-hundred-million-year-old creatures to our ecosystem and debunks the myths that other books …
In Irreplaceable: The Fight to Save Our Wild Places, Julian Hoffman shows us endangered habitats and the creatures who inhabit them—as well as the humans who are fighting to save these fragile landscapes. He puts us vividly within these places, portraying just how special and vulnerable they are, and also shows us the passion, dedication, …
Intended for audiences considering adopting a vegan diet, 72 Reasons To Be Vegan provides succinct and (mostly) evidence-based advantages of veganism. 72 Reasons To Be Vegan is organized in list format. Each brief chapter is one positive element of veganism. Filled with pops of color, fun facts, and accessible writing, 72 Reasons To Be Vegan …
We’re losing birds, by the billions. Which is why I wanted to mention a movement in which you devote 2/3 of your land to native species of plants. If we could plant even half of our 40 million acres of lawn in 2/3 native plants, and keep them pesticide free, we could turn the bird …
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 program: Eastern Oregon University is pleased to announce the launch of a new low-residency writing MFA with a concentration in Wilderness, Ecology, and Community (WEC). …
PANK Magazine is now accepting works (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, hybrid) for a special issue: Environmental Futures Folio, guest edited by Aram Mrjoian. Here’s the call: The health and sustainability of our environment continues to be threatened and detrimentally harmed in real time. This folio is a call for art that not only considers imagined …
The natural world is in crisis. Rising sea levels. Burning forests. Species extinction. Climate change is leaving no one and no thing unaffected. At this precarious moment, what becomes the role of the nature writer, who has long heralded nature’s beauty and bounty? Writer, philosopher, and environmental activist Kathleen Dean Moore answers that question in …
Located north and west of us here in Ashland, Oregon, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology provides educational courses and residencies to artists. And they’re now open for residency applications. Here’s the call: Calling all painters, novelists, climate activists, photographers, biologists, composers, poets, journalists, architects, film makers, performers, inventors, botanists, curators, foresters, ceramicists, playwrights, illustrators, …
I didn’t plan to read the nonfiction book Dark Emu shortly before reading the novel The Yield by Tara June Winch. But I couldn’t think of a better pairing. While Dark Emu deconstructs colonial myths about Australian Aboriginal civilizations, The Yield illustrates how these myths were used to justify tearing apart families and cultures. In …
Here is a small selection of new and forthcoming environmental books that have come across our inboxes… Persephone in the Late Anthropocene This ecopoetic collection interweaves the voices of Persephone, Demeter, and a human chorus with a range of texts, including speculative cryptostudies that shed light on the culture of the “Late Anthropocene.” More Monster …
Imagine that you’re an nth-generation farmer and you’ve been raised to continue business as usual in animal agriculture. But you can’t help but notice that the world is changing around you. People are eating less meat, consuming less dairy. Animals activists (such as myself) are saying cows and sheep and pigs and chickens deserve peaceful …
What a wonderful opportunity for writers. Each year, two writers become residents for up to a month between May and October. Each resident receives a $750 stipend and, in exchange, commits to offering a public presentation of their work in nearby Taos (public health conditions permitting). The Leopold Writing Program (LWP) is an Albuquerque, NM-based …
How about a new writing contest to kick off 2021? This one is sponsored by Grist and looks very interesting (and timely): Welcome to Imagine 2200 — a new climate-fiction contest by Fix, Grist’s solutions lab. What we’re seeking: short stories that envision the next 180 years of equitable climate progress. What we’re offering: $8,700 …
The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is a protected area of more than 100,000 acres not far from us in Ashland, Oregon. It covers the area where the Siskiyou Mountains meet the Cascade Range. And now there is an opportunity for a resident artist: The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Artist in Residence Program is committed to supporting artistic …
Not surprisingly, we’ve been doing quite a bit of reading this year. Here are some of our favorite books. And not all of them were new in 2020. We reviewed Braiding Sweetgrass back in 2019, and it’s comforting to see that book rise to the top of our collective consciousness (a seven-year old overnight success …
