Nonfiction

The Evolution of Fire

Essays on Crisis and Becoming
By
Angela Pelster
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From the celebrated author of Limber, a luminous collection of essays about crisis, hope, and the decision to resist or embrace evolution—a book about time, for our time.
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Crisis is an agent of evolution, and Angela Pelster knows what it means to evolve. As a child, she burned grass to keep weeds at bay and watched tadpoles transform. She basked in the warmth of her father’s love but was burned by his rage, and she witnessed a sudden, unnamable change occur in her older sister after an encounter with a stranger in a white van. In adulthood, she survived the explosion of her marriage, the destruction of her burning home, and a year spent as the single mother of a toddler without a home of their own. And like us all, she has weathered the upheaval of our current atmosphere—political instability, climate change, mass extinction.

But in spite of the world’s violence, Pelster manages to remain open to its beauty, deciding not to resist change, but to give herself over to it and let evolution make her into a new animal. She plumbs the depths of ancestral knowledge to uncover the scale of our ancient capacity for adaptation, from humankind’s early harnessing of fire to the grandmothers responsible for our continued existence.

Meditative and curious, pulsing with fascination, fear, and the untamable human spirit, The Evolution of Fire contemplates who we are now and what we still might become.

ISBN
9781639551231
Publish Date
Pages
184
Dimensions
8.5 × 5.5 × 1 in
Weight
12 oz
Cover Art
Author

Angela Pelster

Angela Pelster is a multi-award-winning essayist recognized by PEN, the McKnight Foundation, Bread Loaf, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Published in LitHub, Ploughshares, Granta, The Kenyon Review, and other outlets, she lives and works in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Praise and Prizes

  • “The Evolution of Fire is stunningly written—vivid in imagery, in the braiding together of language, and in the honoring of every person it shines a light on. But, beyond that, I found the gift of this book to be in its rich self-awareness, its patience with every movement, and especially its care for the self.”

    Hanif Abdurraqib
    author of There’s Always This Year

  • “I read The Evolution of Fire in a near breathless fugue, utterly under the spell of Angela Pelster’s lyrical, wise reflections on how a body and mind are shaped by crisis. Though perfect for fans of Jo Ann Beard and Rebecca Solnit, this book is entirely its own—a memoir-in-essays that made me rethink not only how personal stories can be told, but the stories I tell about my own life.”

    Erica Berry
    author of Wolfish

  • “Angela Pelster is a writer as wise as she is miraculous. In The Evolution of Fire, she teaches us what it means to lose and to suffer, to watch flames ravaging everything and yet to remain, as she phrases it, tenderhearted—open to this world, despite its violence. This book that made me weep, made me shiver in fear, but it also made me laugh with delight. It is a book about time and a book for this time.”

    Sarah Viren
    author of To Name the Bigger Lie

  • “At once contemplative and urgent, The Evolution of Fire snakes through personal, national, and ecological crises, offering new ways of remembering our ancient capacities for care and survival. This book feels like the opposite of doomscrolling—every sentence is lush, simmering, resilient.”

    Sonya Bilocerkowycz
    author of On Our Way Home from the Revolution

  • “Searing. Angela Pelster takes us back in time, deep within our most private selves, and to the precipice of everything that matters. In intense flashes and slow burns, these urgent, lyric, searching essays chronicle a life, a planet, and the mechanisms of becoming. I am shaken. This book has changed the way I think of crisis—and where we stand now.”

    A. Kendra Greene
    author of No Less Strange or Wonderful

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