In Thought, Word, and Seed: Reckonings from a Midwest Farm

by Tiffany Eberle Kriner, Thomas Gardner (Foreword)

In this brilliantly crafted essay collection, Tiffany Eberle Kriner weaves together literary criticism, nature writing, and memoir to explore what grows when we plant texts in the landscapes of our lives. The first time Tiffany Eberle Kriner walked the parcel of land that would become Root and Sky Farm its primary crop seemed to be chaos. Industrial agriculture practices had depleted the fields, leaving them littered with the detritus of consumerism and rural poverty—plastic deck chairs, bags of diapers, endless empty cans of Monster Energy Drink. In this landscape, she meets Virgil and Charles W. Chesnutt, where her close readings of their works intersect with her efforts to create “a just and sustainable community farm.” From her sixty acres in northern Illinois, Kriner reads James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, T. S. Eliot, William Langland, and others. She weaves reflections into the warp and woof of her coaxing growth from neglected land, embracing the frustrations and joys of family life, reckoning with racism in a small town. Along the way she cultivates an awareness of interdependence and mercy as they appear in the particulars of her rooted life. Connecting culture, ecology, faith, and literature,  In Thought, Word, and Seed  invites readers to cultivate fruitful conversations between literature and the environments in which they live.

Genres: Memoir, Christian

215 pages, Paperback

Published September 26, 2023

Reviews

[Christina “6 word reviewer” Lake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beauteous soul of a literary scholar.

[Mary Elizabeth Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning! The blend of poetry, literary criticism, and memoir makes this one to reference again and again. It feels like a long meditation on, "how long, O Lord?" and reads like a contemporary Psalm. So so striking.

[Michele Morin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Thought, Word, and Seed is a genre-bending view from a farm under construction in which the unceasing labor of field and fence and forest gives way to Kriner’s “reckonings” at the intersection of literature and life. (Unfortunately, some of the works she quotes from use language that would never have been sanctioned at the Bible camps of Kriner’s youth!)

Kriner’s story is grounded in the land and the work of Root and Sky Farm, but her theological musings travel the world. As a long-time gardener and rural dweller, I identified with many points of her story, but I had to work hard to keep up with her literary criticism and musings on obscure (to me) books and authors. That’s not a bad thing for this aging brain, but it’s a factor for a reader to consider.

Even so, as the author “sharpen[s] [her] loppers and prays for everything,” she models a faith that looks for beauty amid the honeysuckle brambles and truth amid the tangle of our culture’s complicated narratives.

Many thanks to Eerdman’s Publishing Company for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.

[Katherine Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raw, profound, insightful, and real. In some ways this book reminded me of Amanda Gorman's Call Us What We Carry as it reflects on the experiences and the pains of 2020 from pandemic to George Floyd to border walls. As it echoes some of what you were feeling but didn't know how to articulate yet also provides new perspectives and leaves you with open questions. Not everything is tied up neatly and yet in that there is a space to continue to process and ponder, confess and grow, reach out and connect. The book is rooted in the land and in the people of the land. It is also rooted in literature across ages, genres, and peoples. In Thought, Word, and Seed expertly weaves together pieces of literature, experiences, history, liturgy, and reflections. It is an engaging read that is sometimes hard and yet leaves you feeling known, connected, and encouraged in the searching, like finding a fellow pilgrim on the road.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when powerful texts are planted in the soil of your life?

Tiffany Kriner weaves the texts she knows as a professor of English with stories from her family's farm as the world burns with George Floyd's fire and isolates with COVID and insight and understanding begin to emerge and grow.

Local history of the farm, apocalyptic apparitions of 19th century beekeepers, wounded owls in the rain, the impossible work of rejuvenating a farm so far gone, ridiculous sheep eating the forest. The book beckons us into the fields and woods as places of disorientation and discovery.

This book took me by the hand and lead me to treasure.

[Paul Correa · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the few books of hundreds I've read that I couldn't finish. Not what I expected, it is full of race hustling, wokeness, white privilege, etc., etc., etc. Yes, the death of George Floyd was a tragedy, a greater one was the death in the US that day of 3,000+ innocent infants of all races by abortion, a topic that doesn't seem to be much on the radar screen of Wheaton College professors.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful words, soul nourishing, raising questions and curiosity, worthy of rereading just after finishing— but I have friends waiting to get their hands on these reckonings from a Midwest Farm.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous and challenging.

[Taylor Reddeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

gave up but cool at first

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reason for four stars, not five, is that the section of letters to James Baldwin went on too long. Then again, that may be my fault. They made me uncomfortable, and that which makes us uncomfortable always goes on too long. The fault, therefore, may be mine and not the author’s. Worth reading on several levels. Part Thoreau, part Annie Dillard, part Joan Didion, part Barbara Kingsolver in topic (leaving the city for the woods), style (detailed descriptions of nature), themes (what are we doing to each other and ourselves and why), and tone (passionate and purposeful).

Personal note: the author is a professor at Wheaton University, and my son, while her student, was an editor on one of her previous books.