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 …
environmental writing
New and forthcoming environmental books (September 2025)
I’m pleased the share the latest batch of fiction and nonfiction books with environmental themes… Footprint: Four Itineraries By Radhika Subramaniam The book takes the footprint for a walk—to the …
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 …
ASLE announces finalists for 2025 Book Awards
ASLE has announced the finalists for its biennial book awards and I’m excited to see a few titles reviewed here at EcoLit Books, like Sea Change, Soil and The Last …
New and forthcoming environmental books (June 2025)
As we reach the halfway point of 2025 we have another exciting group of books to share. Enjoy! The Secret of Whylder Wood By Elaine Ramsey Park Woods and Whylder …
Novel Ecologies, Nature Remade and the Illusions of Tech
by Allison Carruth The University of Chicago Press, 2025 Reviewed by JoeAnn Hart Think of clouds. Light, airy, floating around in our atmosphere. Therefore, the words “cloud computing” make it …
Make Love, Not War: Rethinking Our Relationship with ‘Invasive’ Species
I was once told that a weed is simply a plant out of place. Indeed, one person’s weed may be another person’s precious resource. In Love Them to Death: Turning …
New and forthcoming environmental books (May 2025)
Imagine a lion who decides one day that he will no longer survive off eating animals. This is the premise of Erasmus Joseph Lion by Marvin Rollick, one of a …