8 Sep 2022

The best field guides and atlases that will make you look at field guides and atlases in a whole new way

Posted by  in News

I wrote a short book list for an interesting new website called Shepherd. You can see it here.

 

15 May 2019

Applying the Geohumanities

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My article “Applying the Geohumanities” has been published in the International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research. The article is part of a special issue on applied geography in academia, edited by my NMSU colleague Micheal DeMers.

Here is the abstract:

In recent years, geography has taken up a renewed engagement with humanities approaches to place, space, and environment. These approaches offer new possibilities for relevant, publicly engaged research and teaching; applying the geohumanities expands the techniques that geographers can employ to do engaged work in the face of great social and environmental challenges. This article describes two examples of applied geohumanities projects: a community course on climate change and poetry and a creative approach to a citizen science bioblitz. Building on these examples, four questions for future work in applied geohumanities are posed.

5 Sep 2017

New Review of The Sonoran Desert in Southwestern American Literature

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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.

13 Feb 2017

New Reviews in The Los Angeles Review and Western American Literature

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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 neededThe Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide 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…”

Find the full reviews here and here.

4 Mar 2016

A Celebration of the Poetry and Natural History of the Sonoran Desert

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This Sunday, March 6 at the Desert Museum!

RSVP Here.

ASDM_PoetryInvitation_public

15 Dec 2015

The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide Available for Pre-Order

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The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide is now available for pre-order here.

“It’s a book to walk with, a book to scribble in, and even a book to use as a cushion if the desert rock you tried The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guideto sit on was too sharp. It’s also a book to get away with. Let the rest of the country rant and rave and post and tweet and babble. The writers inside these pages aren’t listening. They are too busy getting out there and getting lost, naming plants and animals, teaching and learning, and doing the vital work of mapping their place.” —David Gessner, author of All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West

“A book of delights for the mind and spirit, this is what a field guide ought to be. What better way to truly see a place than through the unblinking eyes of literature? What better way to truly love a place than through the embrace of ecology? Put them together, as Magrane and Cokinos have brilliantly done, and here is their irresistible invitation to the spectacular desert.” —Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature