In Charlotte McConaghy’s lovely new novel, Wild Dark Shore, Dominic Salt and his family—eighteen-year-old Raff, seventeen-year-old Fen, and nine-year-old Orly—moved to Shearwater Island eight years earlier, when Dominic “needed a job, and I needed it to be far away.” While formerly living among researchers, the rising seas have forced the scientists to evacuate, and the …
Nearly 30 years ago, the first genetically modified (GM) seed produced a tomato known as the Flavr Savr. The tomato was engineered for longer shelf life which was where it spent most of its time. Consumers didn’t like the way it tasted and it soon went the way of history. But that didn’t stop Monsanto …
Christina Lynch’s Pony Confidential is a light, highly readable mystery co-narrated by murder suspect Penny and her childhood pet, Pony, who comes to her rescue despite his lingering resentment that Penny sold him when he was young. When Penny is arrested and extradited for a murder she allegedly committed in New York State when she was twelve …
The Readers Write section in The Sun is one of the most-read sections of this popular magazine. I’m happy to pass along an opportunity that I suspect will resonate with many readers of EcoLit Books: Wild AnimalsMaybe bears or coyotes roam your backyard, or maybe the closest you get to wildlife is city pigeons and …
So many amazing books. So little time to review them all… Solar Adobe: Energy, Ecology, and Earthen Architecture By Albert Narath How a centuries-old architectural tradition reemerged as a potential solution to the political and environmental crises of the 1970s Against the backdrop of a global energy crisis, a widespread movement embracing the use of …
An EcoLit Books success story doesn’t have to be limited to the written word. Reckoning features artwork by Talitha May who discovered the journal through our list of Literary Outlets for Environmental Writing. While hard to read in the image above, the story behind this artwork is important to know. Here’s the link to read …
In his book Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication, Arik Kershenbaum notes that animal communication is a young science, and this addition to it, focusing on seven animals, six of them nonhuman, is a fun and fascinating read. In looking at these six nonhuman species, Kershenbaum concludes that nonhuman “animals can talk. Just …
Today I updated our two lists devoted to environmental publishers and journals. To our list of literary outlets for environmental writing I added a new academic journal: Plant Perspectives. They also are open to non-academic works. Click below to see all 100+ journals and magazines: To our list of environmental publishers I have added Reverberations …
Edge Effects is a digital magazine produced by graduate students at the Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE). They are currently seeking submissions around the theme of Companion Species. Submissions are due by February 20th and there is no fee. Companionship is one of humanity’s foundational tenets. Scholars have recently challenged the anthropocentric view of companionship, …
In Fiona Warnick’s novel The Skunks, recent college graduate Isabel moves back to her hometown to housesit, babysit, work at a yoga studio, and try to avoid thinking about boys. She knows she is a bit obsessed; as her longtime friend Ellie tells her, “I can probably name more boys you’ve liked than classes you’ve taken.” …
If history is written by the victors, then this book is a much-needed step forward in our awareness and understanding of the non-human animals who have suffered at the hands of humans for millennia. Judging by the title, I expected to find a book weighing in at a thousand or more pages. But at just …
