Reimagining Place ECOTONE

by David Gessner

Ecotone is a literary journal of place that seeks to publish creative work about the environment and the natural world while avoiding the hushed tones and clichés of much of so-called nature writing. In the natural world an ecotone is a landscape where two separate ecosytems overlap, a place of danger and opportunity for animals. As we try to reimagine a new literature of place, our journal embraces literary ecotones, writing that breaks across genres and seeks out edges. These edges—between science and literature, the urban and rural, the personal and biological—are places that are alive and electric, as well as new and dangerous.

216 pages, Unknown Binding

First published December 1, 2006

About the author

David Gessner is the author of fourteen books that blend a love of nature, humor, memoir, and environmentalism, including the New York Times bestselling, All the Wild That Remains, Return of the Osprey, Sick of Nature and Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness.

Gessner is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Ecotone. His own magazine publications include pieces in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Audubon, Orion, and many other magazines, and his prizes include a Pushcart Prize and the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay for his essay “Learning to Surf.” He has also won the Association for Study of Literature and the Environment’s award for best book of creative writing, and the Reed Award for Best Book on the Southern Environment. In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, "The Call of the Wild."

He is married to the novelist Nina de Gramont, whose latest book is The Christie Affair.

“A master essayist.” –Booklist

“For nature-writing enthusiasts, Gessner needs no introduction. His books and essays have in many ways redefined what it means to write about the natural world, coaxing the genre from a staid, sometimes wonky practice to one that is lively and often raucous.”—Washington Post.

“David Gessner has been a font of creativity ever since the 1980s, when he published provocative political cartoons in that famous campus magazine, the Harvard Crimson. These days he’s a naturalist, a professor and a master of the art of telling humorous and thought-provoking narratives about unusual people in out-of-the way-places."
--The San Francisco Chronicle

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prose is decidedly (very decidedly?) better than the poetry. Here are the stand-outs:

"Insectuality" by Jason Ockert (author of Rabbit Punches)

"You Are the One" by Scott D. Pomfret (author of gay romance novels, which is probably as utterly horrifying as it sounds; seems like wasted talent if you ask me)

"Dream Pond: Just Add Water. Then Add More." by Michael Pollan (you know who this guy is)

"The Body Autumnal" by Lisa Wells (this story is astoundingly good)

[Meen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I imagine I wouldn't be saying this now if I had stayed an English major, but this is the first literary journal I've ever read! I LOVED it, and I'm about to become a subscriber. (Oh, and now I'm on a lit journal kick. These are much more enjoyable than our sociological journals!)