The Waterston Desert Writing Prize 2019 is now open for submissions. Applicants must submit online via Submittable through April 1, 2019. The Prize honors creative nonfiction that illustrates artistic excellence, sensitivity to place, and desert literacy, with the desert as both subject and setting. Inspired by author and poet Ellen Waterston’s love of the high desert of Central Oregon, a region that has been her muse for over 30 years, the Prize recognizes the vital role deserts play worldwide in the ecosystem and the human narrative. Submission guidelines and a link to submit are available at www.waterstondesertwritingprize.org.
The Prize winner will receive a $2,500 cash award, a reading and reception at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, and a four-week residency at PLAYA at Summer Lake, Oregon.
Patty Limerick to Serve as Guest Judge
The prize is funded from an endowment managed by the Oregon Community Foundation, with the impetus for the creation of the endowment provided by actor Sam Waterston, after whom the prize is named.
We’re so glad that the number of both readers and reviewers of EcoLit Books have grown enough to now have an annual tradition of celebrating our favorite books of the year.
And this is indeed something to celebrate because there were some amazing environmental and animal-themed books published over the past year, and these aren’t necessarily the books you’ll see on more mainstream “best of the year” lists.
But these books are, in our humble opinion, some of the more important books of the year. Tackling topics that range from rethinking farming practices to how to coexist with wildlife in urban areas to our evolving relationship with the land and its many creatures.
I hope you enjoy the list. Thanks so much to our readers — and especially our contributors — for making EcoLit Books an online hub for eco-literature. Here’s to another year of reading like you give a damn.
American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee is a riveting account of the life and untimely death of O-Six, Yellowstone’s most famous wolf. It is also the story of humanity’s timeless attempt to bend nature to its will, no matter the cost.
Rising by Elizabeth Rush takes readers on a graphic tour of U.S. coastal communities grappling with the devastating effects of climate change. From Maine to Miami, the Gulf Coast to the Bay Area, Rush reveals how lives, livelihoods, and entire ecosystems are undergoing irrevocable changes that are destined to leave many of these communities uninhabitable. It is not an uplifting read, but it is an important one.
While the notion of “cultured meat” or “lab-grown” meat may sound odd to many, Paul Shapiro’s book makes the case for why this new industry is among our best hopes for, quite literally, saving the world….Clean Meat should be read by anyone who cares about the planet, but most of all by those who currently eat and wear animals the way these products are made today. This book provides a detailed, well-rounded examination of a new industry that highlights the challenges — and the incredible possibilities — of feeding and clothing us all in an increasingly populated and demanding world.
Heather Taft
Reflecting on the environmental books I’ve read this year, two really stand out to me. My first recommendation is a children’s book I read this summer for 8-11 year olds called Poacher Panic by Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler, illustrated by Diane Le Feyer.
This book focuses on the rescue of a wild tiger in Sumatra and her two cubs that are set to be taken by poachers once the cubs are old enough to leave their mom. Ben and Zoey work to track down the tigers, while they try to figure out who the poachers are, so they can rescue the tigers before the poachers get to them first. Their research also teaches them about the trafficking of wildlife and animals parts. The book is written at an appropriate level for children. It is also the first book in the Wild Rescue series, so there are more books focused on other species and wildlife issues around the world to choose from if your child likes this one.
Clearly I have a passion for big cats. As a conservation biologist I knew trophy hunting had devastating effects on lion prides in Africa. This book explained the nature of lion prides and the impact of losing males over and over again, leading to decreasing pride sizes. I also was not aware of the extent of government involvement in trophy hunting and the impact this can have on a researcher trying to save the lions they are using to make money. It was a very interesting and informative read for me.
Thanks to DNA, we now know that Australia is the wellspring of the planet’s songbirds. And it wasn’t until the second half of the last century that Australians themselves began to appreciate that songbirds evolved in their backyards. And it’s not only songbirds that Australia gave the word but parrots.
When we started EcoLit Books five years ago, this was the type of book I had in mind. A novel that places nature in its proper place in relation to people. That is, above us — in this case, both figuratively and literally. In The Overstory, Richard Powers has crafted an epic novel that stretches hundreds of years, culminating in a series of life-and-death environmental battles. But even more so, this is a novel about rediscovering the largest and oldest living creatures on our planet.
Here’s an exciting new call for submissions from the UiO (University of Oslo) Department of Sociology and Human Geography:
Attention writers and humanities researchers: this is a call for narratives that bring us closer to the potentiality of the present and activate “the politics of the possible” in our changing climate. Twelve stories will be selected for publication in the Our Entangled Future anthology. We welcome your words, your “new ontological metaphors”, your not-yet-here imagined realities.
The three most compelling stories about quantum social change will receive awards of EUR 1000, EUR 750, and EUR 500. The most promising stories will be edited by renowned author, editor, and writing teacher Jordan E. Rosenfeld (http://jordanrosenfeld.net/about/).
The Goose, one of Canada’s leading literary journal devoted to the arts, environment and culture, is looking for submissions for a special issue that address art and environmental activism.
Specifically, they are looking for submissions from artists, activists, and academics, such as:
Visual art, poetry, prose, storytelling, craft, print and poster making, digital art, dance, music, video and sound recordings, and land-based art
The relationship between activist art and commodity capitalism
Critical writing on popularity, award culture, celebrity status
Social media, technology, and the digital
The role and status of the artist in communities and environmental justice movements
Art and activism, art as activism, art praxis and everyday life
Art ecocriticism and theory
Activist traditions or innovations in media, form, genre, and technique
Deadline is January 7th. Also note: “While our focus is on Canadian content, we also accept international material.”
You can’t find a better deal than this — a free online class from the International Writing Program (the IWP) at the University of Iowa: Stories of Place: Writing and the Natural World.
You as participants will work with some of the many possible types of creative non-fiction, ranging from essays, science journalism, travel narratives, and speculative portrayals of the natural future. And as writers you will work with ways to portray truth and fact, whether it involves telling stories about the local, the global, the invisible, the beautiful, or the uncertain.
The course content includes writers who are both native and non-native English speakers, and we welcome those of you who are working on your own English language skills. Reading and listening to writers from a variety of backgrounds, and locating your own voice and experience through the writing of stories are strong language practice techniques.
We are a community passionate about books with environmental and animal rights themes. We are sponsored by Ashland Creek Press and supported by purchases from our new bookstore.
