Gary Paul Nabhan is an Arab American ethnobotanist, desert ecologist, and coastal wetlands restorationist, known to the Ecumenical Franciscan Order as Brother Coyote. The author of dozens of books focused primarily on the interaction of biodiversity and cultural diversity, he is also a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed-saving movement. He cofounded Native Seeds/SEARCH, a nonprofit conservation organization working to preserve place-based Southwestern agricultural plants and knowledge of their uses, then served as director of conservation, research, and collections at both the Desert Botanical Garden and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where he helped create Ironwood Forest National Monument. He founded the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, then joined the University of Arizona faculty and founded the Center for Regional Food Studies. The recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant,” a Lannan Literary Award, a Pew Fellowship, and numerous other distinctions, Gary Paul Nabhan lives in Patagonia, Arizona, where he farms a diverse set of heirloom fruit and nut varieties from the Spanish Mission era and from the Middle Eastern homelands of his ancestors.
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Books by Gary Nabhan
Gary Paul Nabhan is an Arab American ethnobotanist, desert ecologist, and coastal wetlands restorationist, known to the Ecumenical Franciscan Order as Brother Coyote. Among our most celebrated thinkers and activists, he has authored dozens of books, been described as the “father of the local food movement” (Time) and our “lyrical poet of biodiversity” (Mother Jones), and been awarded a MacArthur “genius grant.”
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 unique collaboration in support of the Ironwood Forest National Monument.