Orion September / October 2014

AT A GATHERING of writers hosted by Orion in the late 1990s, I was seated next to Ann Zwinger, author of a number of unforgettable books of nature writing, including Beyond the Aspen Grove and Run, River, Run. In a conversation that broke out among the attendees, writer after writer implored each other to find ways to do more in their books and essays than just glorify nature, and to devote more of their writing toward nature’s defense. Ann sat quietly and listened, and at some point she leaned over to me and whispered, “I worry that if we stop glorifying nature we’ll soon forget what we’re defending.” It’s a straw-man argument, because obviously we can glorify nature and work to protect it at the same time. But I think…

Clare Barboza is a documentary food photographer living in Seattle. Kirk Crippens’s portfolio Foreclosure, USA was recently collected by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and can be seen in its exhibition State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now from September 2014 through January 2015. Alison Hawthorne Deming’s essay in this issue will appear in her new book of nonfiction, Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit, out this fall from Milkweed Editions. Brian Doyle edits Portland Magazine and is the author, most recently, of The Plover. Terry Falke’s book of contemporary landscapes, Observations in an Occupied Wilderness, was published in 2006. Rowan Jacobsen’s piece in this issue is excerpted from Apples of Uncommon Character: 123 Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little-Known Wonders, forthcoming from Bloomsbury USA. Jourdan Imani…

The landscape restoration work described by Meera Subramanian in “The City and the Sea” (March/April 2014) is the most encouraging response to climate change I’ve heard. Whether or not a person “believes” in anthropogenic climate change, it makes great sense to begin to align human systems with natural systems. We can learn from the living earth how to arrange our economy and civilization in ways circular and dynamic — just like an ecosystem. And the more we understand the complex elegance of natural systems, the less we will crow over our own accomplishments. I hope that we follow the example of the work described by Subramanian and begin to temper our technical knowledge with the wisdom to follow nature’s lead. PATRICIA DEMARCO Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Thanks to Sy Montgomery for a…

In June, the inaugural Bread Loaf Orion Writers’ Conference took place in the hills near Middlebury, Vermont. Sixty students attended to work on fiction, nonfiction, and poetry projects. One attendee wrote this on her blog following the conference: “I feel like a much better writer, but also a better friend, thinker, human being, and inhabitant of the planet.” The application period for the 2015 conference opens November 1. Many thanks to all of you who donated to the Summer Reading campaign. Reading is not, in fact, just for summertime, and any time of year you can find all the books Orion has published at www.orionmagazine.org/books. We’re rebuilding the Orion website, and we’re excited to share it with you. Go to www.orionmagazine.org around the first of October and tell us what…

1.If you shake hands with an evergreen tree and the branch bites you, that’s a spruce. 2.Insects rule the world, but they don’t talk about it. 3. The reason the ocean is salty is because all the animals have been peeing right in it since before there was even any time. 4. One of our grandmothers is dead, and now she is growing flowers. 5. Dad says all beings are holy in the same proportions, except the Los Angeles Lakers, who are demonic. 6. The best way to eat a worm is to have another kid do it. 7.A shrew is like a mouse with a bad temper. 8. Dad says every time you go for a walk in the woods you ought to get credit for a full day…

Deborah Rose Reeves Portland, Oregon MY HUSBAND WANTS LAND. He digs through websites, hoping to uncover a patch we could afford. I want it too, but it hurts to see him look at places someone else will live on, or subdivide. It’s not our time, yet. We plant pennies in our bank account and watch them grow too slowly. In the meantime, we live in a condo in the city. The Homeowners’ Association does not allow window boxes. Our window faces north and has been blocked by scaffolding all winter anyway. The spider plant is drooping as a result; I don’t know how to help it in this place. I fill mason jars with dried hydrangeas, hang photographs from travels past on our bare, white walls, images of betel nut…