The Nature Writing Index
A guide to the series.
I’ve published a sequence of letters and essays exploring nature writing. Here is a guide, and playlist, to get acquainted with the series.
On the Embodied Nature of Writing
“Nature is the Mother of Metaphor.”—Vanessa Mártir
“There is ecstasy in paying attention.” —Anne Lamott
Intimate language for the living world.
Writing as a generative practice.
Drawing wider circles in the midst of global crises.
“We cannot create what we can't imagine.” —Lucille Clifton
“And so, the water holds what we can no longer touch.” —Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Possibilities on the Fault Line
“Every place, every landscape, is a site of memory and a site of oblivion or erasure.” —Lauret E. Savoy
and edges as openings.
“The image comes first and tells me what the "memory" is about.” —Toni Morrison
“I breathe. I remain.” –Jesmyn Ward
“It’s late but everything comes next.” —Naomi Shihab Nye
Reclamation of self and place in Black nature writing.
“I was born where there were no enclosures and where everything drew a free breath.” —Ten Bears (Yamparika Comanche)
Thinking through the (potential) role of habits in decolonization.
“In this trembling moment…” –Barry Lopez
Writing with nature as decolonial praxis.
On Holding Space for Tender Questions
How can we honor each other well, through life, and death?
“And how we might carry that with us wherever we go.” —Ross Gay
Reflections and threads on 'nature writing'.