Finally, as I catch up on things that passed me by in the rush of this last fall semester, I’m really excited to see that Environmental and Nature Writing: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology is now available from Bloomsbury Academic. Sean Prentiss and I worked super hard on this one, and we think it’s a great text for classes in environmental studies programs focused on writing, as well as classes in English and creative writing programs focused on nature and the environment. And the anthology is, uh, really damn good. We’ve got essays, stories, and poems from a host of the sharpest, bravest, wisest, and most diverse nature and environmental writers working today, including Camille T. Dungy, David Gessner, Jennifer Lunden, Erik Reece, David Treuer, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Alyson Hagy, Bonnie Nadzam, Lydia Peelle, Benjamin Percy, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Nikky Finney, Juan Felipe Herrera, Major Jackson, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Natasha Trethewey, and many more.
News
A Story at Blood Orange Review
So pleased the good folks at the Blood Orange Review took a chance on the this strange, broken story, which features these very cool hover-over footnotes!
Poem at The Missouri Review
So late with this, but wanted to share a recent poem, “Explain: Extinct,” which was up at The Missouri Review‘s Poem of the Week feature this last fall.
Essays in Orion and Riverteeth
I’ve got new essays in recent issues of Orion and Riverteeth. Both grow out of our time down on the Rogue, time which seems to matter more and more as the days recede.
Another Essay in The Sun
I’m late getting this up, but I have an essay, “Dry Season“–all about landscape, choice, and generations–in the October issue of The Sun. You can only read a selection online, but if you don’t subscribe to The Sun, well, you should.
Linfield Live
So pleased to be part of the amazing Readings at the Nick at Linfield College. And now they’re streaming readings live and archiving them! You can check it out here.
The Write Question
This summer, while traveling all over Oregon, Washington, and Montana to read from When We Were Birds, I got the chance to speak with The Write Question about poetry and life and making sense of life through poetry. The Write Question, hosted by Cherie Newman, is a really fabulous NPR show and podcast; if you don’t listen or subscribe, you should!
Review of When We Were Birds
Geez. This review. Kind, wise, a poem in its own right. Thanks, Melissa Mylchreest.
Joe Wilkins’ words unspool down the page like the highway runs off forever into the empty spaces of Montana’s Big Dry, the eastern reaches of the state where he was born and raised. Populated by chokecherry, dry riverbeds, overgrown roadside ditches, lean cattle and leaner people, his books—poetry, nonfiction and fiction—all speak of a world that is scarred, broken, damaged and dusty, but never irredeemable and never without beauty.
Review of Far Enough
Couldn’t be more pleased by this energetic, insightful review of Far Enough by Kathleen Benoit-Whiteley at the Billings Gazette. Really. Knowing the folks back home believe in the book is sure something. Here’s my favorite bit:
“Far Enough” takes 30 minutes to read, but its impact lingers. From raucous cowboys on a Friday night at the Ryegate Bar to a rancher’s gnawing, persistent fear of drought, and from a young girl’s fragile dreams to the harsh realities of a cowboy’s life, Wilkin’s creates a vivid tableaux of the county and its people. Friends of mine, ranchers outside of Park City, agreed, saying that “Far Enough” is the real deal.
Poetry Roadshow
Taking When We Were Birds on the road over the next couple of weeks. I’ll be winding my way through Spokane, Joseph, Missoula, and Bozeman. If you can make it, come on by and say hi!
Here are the details:
- July 7, Spokane, WA: Reading with Kate Lebo at Auntie’s Bookstore
- July 8, Spokane, WA: A memoir writing workshop for Scablands Lit
- July 10-16, Joseph, OR: Fishtrap!
- July 19, Missoula, MT: Reading at Fact & Fiction
- July 21, Bozeman, MT: Reading at The Country Bookshelf
