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A new series of world literature

Seedbank

107 Titles

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Nonfiction
Dan Beachy-Quick

Taking its inspiration—and, for that matter, its form—from Ishmael’s abandoned “Cetological Dictionary” in Moby-Dick, this extraordinary, highly original work brings meditations on myth, representation, language, nature, consciousness, and notions of…

Nonfiction
Karsten Heuer

In April 2003, the author and his wife set out with the Porcupine caribou herd as they journeyed from the Yukon Territory to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On the caribou’s trail, two people learn what is possible when they immerse themselves…

Nonfiction
Barry Lopez

This timely collection—featuring essays from Wendell Berry, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Bill McKibben, and Rebecca Solnit, among others—challenges the division of human society from the natural world that has often characterized traditional…

Nonfiction
Edward Abbey

Edward Abbey’s postcards and letters, legendary during his lifetime, convey the fullness of this singular writer and reveal a tender side seldom seen before. This collection is an awe-inspiring introduction for readers new to Abbey—and for devoted…

Nonfiction
C.M. Mayo

Baja California is a place where nothing is as it seems. As mindful of the peninsula’s history of conquest and exploitation as it is receptive to the extraordinary characters who are drawn to it—from daredevil aviators to expatriate artists, and from…

Nonfiction
Bill McKibben

From the Adirondack Mountains to Kerala, India, to Curitiba, Brazil, this book offers clear-eyed and profoundly compelling portraits of places where resourceful people have confronted modern problems with inventive solutions, and thrived in the…

Nonfiction
Gretchen Legler

Hoping to get away from the complexities of her life, the author arrived at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station with the intention of researching the landscape; what she found, instead, was a zany population of misfits and dreamers. This is an exploration…

Nonfiction
Eric Pinder

When Thoreau stood on the flank of Maine’s Mount Katahdin in 1846, he was one of only a handful who had ventured so far into wilderness for the simple purpose of seeing what was out there. This book observes today’s wilderness mob and wonders: If…

Nonfiction
Joseph Bruchac

This colorful memoir traces the author’s path from “nature nut” to jock to writer, to his home at the end of Ridge Road near where he was raised by his grandparents. Just as essentially, it explores the links between his native Abenaki culture and…

Nonfiction
Emilie Buchwald, Pamela Fletcher, and Martha Roth

Originally published in 1993, this pioneering anthology is a powerful polemic for fundamental cultural change: the transformation of basic attitudes about power, gender, race, and sexuality. This edition updates statistics and essays, and adds new…

Nonfiction
Janisse Ray

In these short pieces—sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking—the author chronicles her return to a hometown in need of repair, physical and otherwise, after seventeen years away. Syrup boils, alligator trapping, and fighting to save the town…

Nonfiction
Gary Nabhan

Meditating on the successful marriage of science and poetry, these essays cover true stories about color-blind scientists, the knowledge stored in ancient Native American songs, the link between an Amy Clampitt poem and diabetes research, and a…

Nonfiction
Emilie Buchwald

Commuters, suburbanites, city dwellers: Are you curious about making your life more livable and interested in knowing what that might mean? This anthology introduces a range of perspectives about creating successful, livable cities, with examples…

Nonfiction
William Stafford

This book gathers the evidence of a lifetime’s commitment to nonviolence. Born the year World War I began, the author spent World War II in a camp for conscientious objectors. His writings show that it is possible—and crucial—to think independently…

Nonfiction
John Daniel

A disarmingly honest story of the author’s restless, rootless, disaffected youth, looking for meaning in drugs and an active outdoor life in the West. From time spent fishing, climbing, and making a living logging—as well as through friendships with…

Nonfiction
John Elder

In these essays, the author describes how he found a way to balance his passions for literature and for the outdoors by building a sugarhouse with his sons in the Vermont woods. For him, the “frog run”—the tail end of the sugaring season in New…

Nonfiction
Hank Lentfer and Carolyn Servid

In January 2001, the editors, responding to proposals to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, sent a call to writers across the country. With testimonies by President Jimmy Carter, Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, Bill McKibben, and Terry Tempest…

Nonfiction
Ann Daum

Reared on her father’s thirty thousand-acre ranch, the author grew up to become a rancher herself, raising sport horses. In these essays—which rise and fall with the undulations of the prairie, and which can pack a punch like South Dakota weather—she…

Nonfiction
Lu Chi

Written in the third century, this is one of the earliest Chinese works about the use of language, intended for those who wish to engage the art of letters at its deepest levels. In sixteen sections, it discusses the joys and problems that face both…

Nonfiction
William Morrish and Catherine Brown

This book is the first of its kind, providing a thoughtful, practical process for neighborhood planning for concerned citizens as well as professional planners.

Nonfiction
Bill Holm

Part traveler’s journal, part philosophical exploration, this book considers the idea of islands and asks whether they encourage eccentricity and grandeur in human beings. Along the way, it introduces beguiling characters and cultures, from the well…

Nonfiction
Robert Michael Pyle

As a boy in Colorado, the author fell in love with alpine heights and the butterflies that float above the tree line. This early passion sparked a career in conservation that took him across the globe—until he realized that he was no longer as…

Nonfiction
Bill Holm

Arranged by letter of the alphabet, with at least one entry per letter, these short pieces capture the variety of daily life in contemporary China. Here, one learns what it is like to travel by “hard-seat” train to a remote village, to smuggle…

Nonfiction
Ann Zwinger

Known for beautifully observed and illustrated books about the rivers, deserts, and mountains of the West, the author here focuses on the guiding principles of her life as naturalist. She moves from details to the larger patterns that link them to…

Nonfiction
Paul Gruchow

Organized by the seasons of the year, this book explores the natural and soul-sustaining beauty of the largest roadless area east of the Rocky Mountains. Drawing on the works of Thoreau and Wendell Berry, the author turns his naturalist’s eye on this…

Nonfiction
Scott Russell Sanders

Here the author recalls the stories and experiences that have guided him as a writer, and speaks on behalf of a life rooted in the commonplace. Emerging from his work is the conviction that moments of interaction with the nonhuman world restore the…

Nonfiction
William Kittredge

In this book, the author tells the story of his family’s homestead in the Great Basin, a ranch worked by horses when he was a boy and transformed into an agribusiness by the time he was a grown man. Recounting his life as farmer and writer, he…

Nonfiction
Rick Bass

A creature almost mythic, Colter—the brown dog of the Yaak—charges through mountain valleys following the scent of game. In this book, the author gives a history of his years with Colter—including vignettes about interactions with well-known writers…