Eli Knapp takes readers from a leaky dugout canoe in Tanzania and the mating grounds of Ecuador's cock-of-the-rock to a juniper titmouse's perch at the Grand Canyon and the migration of hooded mergansers in a New York swamp, exploring life's deepest questions all along the way. In this collection of essays, Knapp intentionally flies away from the flock, reveling in insights gleaned from birds, his students, and the wide-eyed wonder his children experience. The Delightful Horror of Family Birding navigates the world in hopes that appreciation of nature will burn intensely for generations to come, not peter out in merely a flicker. Whether traveling solo or with his students or children, Knapp levels his gaze on the birds that share our skies, showing that birds can be a portal to deeper relationships, ecological understanding, and newfound joy. Eli J. Knapp , PhD, is professor of intercultural studies and biology at Houghton College and director of the Houghton in Tanzania program. Knapp is a regular contributor to Birdwatcher's Digest, New York State Conservationist , and other publications. An avid birdwatcher, hiker, and kayaker, he lives in Fillmore, New York, with his wife and children.
C. Joseph Greaves tackles complex themes of economic prosperity and environmental stewardship in today's American West throughout this character–driven page–turner of a literary novel.Author's previous novels have won the Colorado, Oklahoma, and New Mexico–Arizona Book Awards; his novel Tom & Lucky was a Wall Street Journal «Best Books of 2015» selection and one of three finalists for the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.Author is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and a book reviewer for the Four Corners Free Press , with contacts at High Country News , Smithsonian , Telluride Magazine and more.Early endorsements from Anne Hillerman, Beau L'Amour, Jana Richman, and Craig Johnson.
"Rebecca Lawton's powerful and poetic <i>The Oasis This Time</i> celebrates water as a precious natural resource. The collection is as diverse as it is illuminating. Each essay addresses a unique topic, but all are anchored by keen observations of the environment and musings on alternative solutions to pressing environmental problems." <br>—<b><i>FOREWORD REVIEWS</b></i>
<br><br>"A collection of strong, smart, wise, and deeply knowledgeable essays on water in the West, what it means and has meant to the author throughout her life, and what it means to all of us who depend on nature—the biggest oasis of all—for our lives. I came away from this book better informed, deeply touched, and quietly recommitted to the work of living more gently in our fragile world." <br>—<b>JULIA WHITTY</b>, author of <i>A Tortoise For The Queen Of Tonga</i> and <i>The Fragile Edge</i>
<br><br>"I opened <i>The Oasis This Time</i> assuming I was going to read about water. But what I read about instead was thirst. In straightforward, sometimes rascally, prose, Lawton digs into all the ways we want to be satiated. Our thirst for adventure, for love, for power and control, for ambitious development with an often warped sense of «progress.' Hers is a wake–up call, shaped by Lawton's deep knowledge and love of place, and mostly her commitment to waterways, streams and creeks and rivers and oceans. We need this book.» <br>—<b>DEBRA GWARTNEY</b>, author of <i>Live Through This</i> and <i>I'm A Stranger Here Myself</i>
<br><br>“In a parched and burning land, humanity’s crimes against fresh water stand out with increasing starkness as crimes against ourselves. Through deft, spirited storytelling, Rebecca Lawton faces with compassionate courage the painful truths of our defiled and dwindling waterways; <i>The Oasis This Time</i> bids us to nurture the vital wellsprings we have too long taken for granted.” <br>—<b>SARAH JUNIPER RABKIN</b>, author and illustrator of <i>What I Learned at Bug Camp: Essays on Finding a Home in the World</i>
<br><br>“Rebecca Lawton brings a poet’s eye to the landscapes she loves, but she is, at heart, a warrior. With every sentence she fiercely defends what remains, totals her losses, and moves on to the next critical confrontation. In the end <i>The Oasis This Time</i> offers us a surprising amount of hope. Hope that we can survive even the worst of mankind’s depredations. Hope that this planet is more resilient than we ever imagined.” <br>—<b>ANDY WEINBERGER</b>, independent bookseller at Readers’ Books, and author of <i>The Ugly Man Sits in the Garden: Pieces of a Life</i>
<br><br>“The essays in <i>The Oasis This Time</i> flow like tributaries in a desert river. They meander and eddy and braid. They offer respite and challenge. Rebecca Lawton, as both intimate friend and knowledgeable guide, takes the reader on a dynamic journey from Las Vegas to Alaska, from the Grand Canyon to Ottawa. Her musings on this beloved arid land and its water shimmer with wonder at the life around us&emdash;birds, birds, and more birds!—and within us, and burn with urgency.” <br>—<b>ANA MARIA SPAGNA</b>, author of <i>Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going</i> and <i>The Luckiest Scar on Earth</i> <br><br>Water, the most critical fluid on the planet, is seen as savior, benefactor, and Holy Grail in these fifteen essays on natural and faux oases. Fluvial geologist and former Colorado River guide Rebecca Lawton follows species both human and wild to their watery roots—in warming deserts, near rising Pacific tides, on endangered, tapped-out rivers, and in growing urban ecosystems.</p><p>Lawton thoroughly and eloquently explores human attitudes toward water in the West, from Twentynine Palms, California, to Sitka, Alaska. A lifelong immersion in all things water forms the author's deep thinking about living with this critical compound and sometimes dying in it, on it, with too much of it, or for lack of it. <em>The Oasis This Time</em>, the inaugural Waterston Desert Writing Prize winner, is a call for us to evolve toward a sustainable and even spiritual connection to water.
"If you ever wondered what life is like for the down and out, the remarkable Sojourner lays it out in precise and unsparing prose in her latest collection of short stories."— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY , starred reviewFrom security guards and jack rabbits to bartenders and blue herons , the desert–dwellers in The Talker surface with grit and grace from dust–blown trailers, ancient Joshua trees, and artificial lakes. With her signature down–to–earth storytelling style, Mary Sojourner explores the lives of working class people, threats to Western landscapes, and the complexities of love. The Talker depicts a community weathering the desert glare of the Mojave, seeking refuge, truth, and escape. MARY SOJOURNER is the author of the novels, 29 , Sisters of the Dream and Going Through Ghosts ; the short story collections The Talker and Delicate ; an essay collection, Bonelight: Ruin and Grace in the New Southwest ; and memoirs, Solace: Rituals of Loss and Desire and She Bets Her Life . She is an intermittent NPR commentator and the author of many essays, columns and op–eds for High Country News , Writers on the Range , and other publications. A graduate of the University of Rochester, Sojourner teaches writing in private circles, one–on–one, at colleges and universities, writing conferences, and book festivals. She believes in both the limitations and possibilities of healing through writing—the most powerful tool she has found for doing what is necessary to mend. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.