Touch: Making Contact With Climate Change

by Ben Cromwell

We are dying. May this be resurrection. When Ben Cromwell learned that he was about to become a father in the fall of 2010, he was overjoyed. But joy soon gave way to anxiety as he began to think about his son's future in a world where environmental disasters seemed to be becoming more and more prevalent. At times comic, fierce, and heartbreaking, Touch weaves together Cromwell's experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Pacific Island Nation of Kiribati wtih family and personal history to create a rich tapestry that explores what it means to live and raise a child in a warming world.

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2012

About the author

Ben Cromwell grew up in Southern Illinois and spent many summers in the Ozarks of Missouri where he met his wife, Raven. He went to school in Tempe Arizona where he studied poetry with Jeannine Savard and graduated with a B.A. in English (Lit.) Shortly after graduation, Ben and Raven married and joined the Peace Corps. They spent service as education volunteers on the island of Abaiang in the Republic of Kiribati. Upon returning to the US, Ben and Raven hiked the Appalachian Trail over the course of three years, doing their longest stretch from February to July of 2008, and travelling on foot from Georgia to Pawling, NY. During that time, Ben started a Master's degree in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He completed that degree in the spring of 2011 and his master's thesis became the basis of his book, Touch. Ben and Raven had their son, Ezra in April 2011 and currently reside in Salt Lake City.