Barbara Kingsolver '77 Contributes to American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau
April 22, 2008
April 22, 2008, Greencastle, Ind. - Barbara Kingsolver, the bestselling author and 1977 graduate of DePauw University, is among the contributors to American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau. The new anthology, edited by Bill McKibben (who appeared at DePauw Discourse 2007), also includes works by Walt Whitman, Edward Abbey, David R. Brower, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, John Muir, E.O. Wilson, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Walt Whitman and Michael Pollan, among others. Former Vice President Al Gore provides the book's foreword.
Kingsolver's essay is entitled, "Knowing Our Place."
"What truly sets the anthology apart is not the mix of the obscure and the familiar but McKibben's habit of enlisting voices whom we are not accustomed to thinking of as environmentalists or ecologists," opines Gregory McNamee in today's Washington Post. "I'd be willing to bet that this is the first work of nature writing to feature the drawings of R. Crumb, of Zap Comix fame, alongside lyrics by Marvin Gaye ('Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas/Fish full of 
mercury')."
The review concludes, "Well selected, full of surprises and informed by McKibben's thoughtful commentary, American Earth is the first anthology of American nature writing to come close to the standard Thomas Lyon set two decades ago with 'This Incomperable Lande': A Book of American Nature Writing. Ours is an incomparable land indeed, and McKibben's collection is a welcome reminder."
Read the complete text, "Nature Writing in All Its Diversity,"at the Post's Web site.
Kingsolver will provide the keynote speech and receive an honorary degree at Duke University's May 11 commencement exercises. The author of books including the recent Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Kingsolver is a nominee for a 2008 James Beard Foundation Award.
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