New Review of The Sonoran Desert in Southwestern American Literature
Southwestern American Literature recently published a review of The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide. In the review, William Huggins writes:
“Poetry at it best compels us to look more closely at our world. The best of these poems and short essays lead readers to engage with the plants and animals they describe word by word and line by line, creating a literary ecology that, like the natural world itself, can be returned to time and again, always revealing something not formerly seen. The editors’ stated goal—’The empiricism of science, the imaginative and cognitive leaps of poetry, the close observation of both…we need it all’—is more than met by this excellent book.”
Southwestern American Literature is here, and the link to the issue’s Table of Contents is here.
Visiting Faculty position at New Mexico State University
I have taken a position as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Geography at New Mexico State University (NMSU) for the 2017-2018 academic year.
NMSU is in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the shadows of the new Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. My students and colleagues are great. My NMSU Department of Geography page is here.
Residency at Playa
I’m thrilled to be at a residency at Playa in Oregon’s “outback” this early July, taking part in a themed art-sci climate residency on the edge of Summer Lake and the Great Basin. This is an amazing place to unplug, get some writing done, and connect with other artists and scientists. While here, I’m working on a new series of climate poems. Stay tuned.
Some New Publications
The new issue of Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts (Volume 2) includes my poem “home/practice.”
Also, over at Stanford’s Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB), Erika Gavenus has written a nice feature on my collaboration with Maria Johnson called Bycatch – The Complexities of Shrimp Trawling in the Gulf of California: A collaboration between Maria Johnson and Eric Magrane.
Spiral Orb Thirteen
Spiral Orb Thirteen is here.
With work by:
Juana Adcock, Jamaica Baldwin, Rocío Carlos, Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, Hannah Kezema, Rajiv Mohabir, Óscar de Pablo, Lauren Russell, Danez Smith, Simon Seisho Tajiri, and Ellen Welcker;
Curated by:
Ari Banias, Chiwan Choi, Angel Dominguez, Maricela Guerrero, Amaud Jamaul Johnson, Melanie Noel, Anjoli Roy, Eugenio Tisselli, Deborah Woodard, and Aiko Yamashiro;
as well as an entry poem composted from fragments of each of the pieces in the issue.
This is a special issue guest edited by Wendy Burk, “Collaborative Curation: Each Other.”
New Reviews in The Los Angeles Review and Western American Literature
The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide was recently reviewed in The Los Angeles Review and Western American Literature.
Here are a few quotes from the review by L. Ann Wheeler in The Los Angeles Review:
“…this anthology is the field guide you’ve always wanted. Combining factual information alongside a creative response to each entry, The Sonoran Desert harmonizes science and the arts. This much needed convergence is made in a time where the two fields are often separated and pitted against each other as fabricated opposites.”
“…the valuation of observation over monument-making, is the greatest joy of this collection. Magrane and Cokinos capture light in a jar, so that you may take it into the field: a living, breathing companion.”
And here are a few from the review by Jennifer Lair in Western American Literature:
“The guide fills a niche in western American literature by delivering a combination of literary insight specific to a region while at the same time providing legitimate field guide information in a memorable way likely to make readers chuckle.”
“…a useful, thought-provoking, and entertaining addition to anyone’s field guide collection…”
Bycatch Exhibit at University of Arizona Museum of Art
BYCATCH EXHIBIT AT UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA MUSEUM OF ART
February 4 through April 2, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 9, 5:00-7:00 pm
Spiral Orb Twelve
The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide Named a Southwest Book of the Year
The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide has been named a Southwest Book of the Year. An article in the Arizona Daily Star announced the awards:
The Sonoran Desert also recently won a New Mexico-Arizona Book award from the New Mexico Book Co-op for best anthology of 2016.
Thanks to the panelists who selected the book for these awards, to UA Press, and to all the contributors and critters in the book!
Recent Publications in Ecotone, The Louisville Review, and Terrain
Thanks to the editors of Ecotone, The Louisville Review, and Terrain, where my essays and poems have recently appeared.
The Ecotone essay is titled “A Poem is its Own Animal: Poetic Encounters at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.” In it I reflect on my work as Poet in Residence at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The essay is in Ecotone’s featured “Poem in a Landscape” series in the most recent issue (no. 21).
“Ghost-Birds” is a collaborative poem I wrote with Wendy Burk, originally written while we were artists in residence at Big Cypress National Preserve in southern Florida. This poem is included in the Fall 2016 40th anniversary issue of The Louisville Review.
Two poems and drawings from my Bycatch collaboration with Maria Johnson—“Shovelnose Guitarfish” and “Pacific Seahorse”—are up at Terrain.