Our Books

The author was in the Bahamas, pursuing bonefish, when he had a life-changing encounter with David Pinder, a legendary bonefishing guide. Here he tells Pinder’s story, as well as that of an ecology, of an industry, and enlightenment.

This memoir is a riveting exploration of the contradictions of Black identity in the rural South, asking what it means to be “the rare bird, the oddity.”

A trip becomes an odyssey of self-discovery. Written in gritty, honest prose, Canoeing with José is a remarkable journey.

In this beautiful, evocative, and sometimes provocative memoir, Tim Winton explores Australia’s unique landscape, and how that singular place has shaped him and his writing.

When a New Jersey native moves to Minnesota, she discovers a local food movement strong enough to survive the toughest winter. Fascinating and heartfelt, this memoir demonstrates that even in a place with a short growing season, food grown locally…

At the very time we need them most, scientists and the idea of objective knowledge are being bombarded by a well-funded, three-part war on science. This provocative book investigates why and how, and offers compelling solutions to bring us to our…

Bringing together a wide range of perspectives—industry veterans and provocateurs, writers, editors, and digital mavericks—this collection reflects on the current situation of literary publishing, and provides a road map for the shifting geography of…

As the author approached his thirtieth birthday in a state of acute anxiety, a bookseller prescribed to him a singular literary diet—the poems of a Tang Dynasty hermit named Han-shan. His pilgrimage to Han-shan’s cave decades later comes to life in…

This contemporary classic has inspired thousands to embrace their beginnings, no matter how humble, and to fight for the places they love. In language at once colloquial, elegiac, and informative, this memoir catalogues a people and their home—a…

How are bonobos like us, what can they teach us, and how can we save them? Combining elements of travelogue, journalism, and natural history, this incomparably rich book takes readers deep into the Congo to examine these great apes and the people who…

What if the greatest cause of our planet’s dramatic change—humans’ ability to adapt and innovate—also holds the key to our survival? Part science journal, part travelogue, this book tells the story of a journey into the Anthropocene, or Age of Man…

From a haunted widow’s wildly expanding mansion to atomic test sites in the Nevada desert, the settings of these essays are often places of destruction and loss. And yet this collection transforms these eerie, apocalyptic destinations into sites of…

What does the disappearance of animals mean for human imagination? With a mixture of humor, reverence, and curiosity, this book paints a vivid portrait of the world that made us, and the wisdom we are losing as so many of its creatures fade away.

In the century and a half since John James Audubon’s death, his name has become synonymous with wildlife conservation and natural history. But few people know what a complicated figure he was—or the dramatic story behind The Birds of America—as…

These essays take jellyfish, fainting goats, and imperturbable caterpillars as just a few of their many inspirations. Surveying both the tiniest earth dwellers and the most far-flung celestial bodies, this is a book of wonder, one readers cannot help…

Inundated by monsoon floods in the winter, baked dry in the summer, and filled with the deadliest animals in the world, Australia’s Stilwater Station seems an unlikely home for a cattle operation. But over the course of one season, a ragged crew of…

In 1984, the eleventh year of his life, the author experienced his first love, the loss of his grandmother, and his sister’s departure for college—seemingly ordinary events that eroded his innocence in a way that was never to be fully repaired. At…

A stunning, intricate collection of forty lyric essays juxtaposing natural history, ancient texts, folk heroes, and found objects. Moving from cemeteries to parks—and always cast in the light of the author’s Southern upbringing—this is a collection…

After the Deepwater Horizon well was capped in 2010, most reporters and government officials turned away from the unfolding narrative: the story was over. But for one writer the unimaginable amount of oil spilled into the ocean was only the beginning…

Touching on the works of Emerson, Thoreau, Proust, and Plato, among others, this collection of nonfiction and fables provides a walking tour of the creative mind. This is a rich investigation of what it means to think, read, write, and learn…

At the farthest extent of Australia’s Blue Mountains, on the threshold of the country’s arid interior, the blue plateau reveals the vagaries of a hanging climate: the droughts last longer, the seasons change less, and the wildfires burn hotter and…

Can the love reserved for family and friends be extended to a place? These essays—set on a small island in the Pacific Northwest—beautifully explore the island as a metaphor for the paradoxical connections that bind us despite our apparent isolation…

These essays travel from jungle to desert to sea, from cities to ruins, exploring how history is shaped by ceremonies, expeditions, and wars. Along the way, they pose fundamental but nonetheless provocative questions­­: Where do we come from? Where…

With a tragically leaky canoe, a broken cell phone, a cooler of beer, and a passionate environmental planner in tow, the author sets off on a rough-and-tumble journey down Boston’s Charles River. Along the way, the vision of a new sort of eco…

The Fulbright Triptych is widely considered a masterpiece of contemporary art: a striking family tableau that has quietly inspired, exhorted, and challenged its viewers for years. This collection of essays directly reflects the painting’s inherent…

For centuries, the richness of our world’s diverse stories has been widely overlooked by readers of environmental literature. This collection works against this blind spot, exploring the relationship between culture and place, emphasizing the lasting…

Engaging in a deep and richly entertaining study of “campus ecology,” this fascinating, highly original book explores one day in the life of the average student. Along the way, it repurposes the great and timeless opportunity presented by college: to…

A Minnesotan of Icelandic ancestry, the author’s travels have taken him all over the world. Here he repairs to Brimnes, his fisherman’s cottage on the shore of a fjord in northern Iceland. Looking west from this place of seemingly endless and…

Founded nearly four decades ago by a group of young writers, the Loft has become our nation’s largest independent literary center. This anthology gathers the collected wisdom of that community, from practical tips and suggestions to ruminations on…

Charting one cycle of seasons, this book reveals countless cycles of thought: the innumerable sounds of winter snow; the fecundity of spring; the tenacity of prairie roots in a summer drought; and the mortality of fall. The result is equal parts…

This fascinating account of life on North America’s last frontier chronicles the transformation of the Arctic as the mainstream moves relentlessly north. Essays and photographs offer an ode to respect—that oft-forsaken, unromantic quality—for the…

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…

At midlife, the author writes, we are called to an “archaeology of memory”—turning over a potsherd here, a fragment there—to assemble something whole out of the messiness of experience. She encourages all of us to contemplate our own deep story, in…

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…

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…