RaveTerrainThis spiraling eco-memoir presents both the geopolitical history of a place alongside personal story and reflection, and it successfully documents the somatic impacts of long-term political conflict while acknowledging the natural world as a potential source of healing ... Writing about place and self can be complicated and in some of the finest environmental writing, the human element gets forgotten. Our daily compromises get tucked away too tightly into the fold. In Thin Places, Dochartaigh teaches as much as she muses, blurring the line between environmental nonfiction, in the vein of Annie Dillard and Barry Lopez, and elegant memoir. While at times it feels like there is too much telling for Thin Places to be memoir—all 13 chapters are written as first-person, narrative nonfiction and lacking scene or any substantial dialogue—Dochartaigh’s working definition of nature throughout this book, which includes the messy legacy of loss and grief and colonialism, feels complete and original ... Unspoken, intergenerational trauma has been shared and contemplated with great care. In our current phase of environmental catastrophe and the troubling global resurgence of fascism, this type of brave honesty is desperately needed across all genres, but especially within the realm of impactful, climate and social justice writing. The ability to examine faults of the past—how they were seeded and how they rippled beyond borders—and link them to our present day realities is essential to not only avoiding the same mistakes, but finding novel ways of being in the world and caring for each other.
James Rebanks
PositiveOrion MagazineRebanks offers a realistic perspective on the demands of farming as a profession ... He invites readers into his most intimate moments ... Pastoral Song honors old and new ways and is a testament to Rebanks’s own curiosity and tenacity ... Part lament, part manifesto, this book does what most critical books about agriculture fail to accomplish—it acknowledges the value of nature and provides a convincing argument that humans have a necessary role in it—only, however, if we are enduring enough to stay, and pay attention, and live quietly within our means.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Illustrated by Fumi Nakamura
RaveTerrain... vivid and provocative ... Creatures big and small have offered instruction as well as consolation during periods of displacement and episodes of discrimination in her life and Nezhukumatathil’s thirst for the unknown, and sometimes unexplainable, is contagious ... The beautiful seamlessness between mother and daughter, giant tree and place, shyness and safety, illuminates the potent transfiguration found within these essays ... Wherever she lands, Nezhukumatathil roots herself firmly within the natural world and her revelations are as invigorating as her anger ... decorated with the distinct humor and grace found throughout her poetry ... Interestingly, Nezhukumatathil’s own profuse questions throughout this collection are just as piercing ... Nezhukumatathil’s resiliency, and her constant ability to find beauty and connection in the world, is perhaps the real astonishment ... a poignant reminder that the voices gently referred to as \'new\' in environmental writing have been here doing the work for decades and they demand a broader audience. Nature writing has largely been a white enterprise; however, Nezhukumatathil’s point of view clears a path to redemption—one in which we acknowledge that we all belong (and are accountable) to each other as well as to this strange and wonderous Earth.
Natalie Diaz
RaveTinderboxDiaz is a master of transfiguration ... Hip imagery in Postcolonial Love Poem has important symbolic meaning in the body and appears frequently in Diaz’s collection threading these poems together in an effective, and thought-provoking way ... Between vivid and often sensuous scenes, Diaz poses vulnerable and surprising questions to the reader ... Diaz is doing the hard work of both decolonization and discovery in these poems, finding new truths and possibly long-lasting healing and change with language that is truly her own ... groundbreaking ... gripping ... Acknowledging our own bodies in place and time and history, finding those we can belong to, those we can love, are essential human longings and for Diaz, also a balm against systemic oppression that could have otherwise deprived her of all poetic urgings. Postcolonial Love Poem teaches as much as it soothes. Diaz interweaves personal and universal love and desire and successfully demonstrates their centrality to our collective story.
