Susan Naramore Maher, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, has a new book out, Thinking Continental: Writing the Planet One Place at a Time. Co-authored by Tom Lynch, Drucilla Wall, and O. Alan Weltzien, it was released on Nov. 1, 2017 by the University of Nebraska Press.
The book contains the articles, essays, personal narratives, and poems by more than forty authors. Through the juxtaposition of the pieces, the editors offer a conversation between writers who connect ideas of global citizenship and environmental concern.
The publishers explain it this way, "Reckoning with the larger matrix of biome, region, continent, hemisphere, ocean, and planet has become necessary as environmental challenges require the insights not only of scientists but also of poets, humanists, and social scientists. Thinking Continental braids together abstract approaches with strands of more-personal narrative and poetry, showing how our imaginations can encompass the planetary while also being true to our own concrete life experiences in the here and now."
Susan Maher says the book is unique because of its viewpoint. "The book brings together poets, creative nonfiction writers, many of whom are scholars, and performance artists," she says. "In each section of the book, poets, artists, and essayists are in dialogue about aspects of the planet: ground truths, watersheds, and what we call 'planetary currents.' Creativity, scientific research, and matters of the heart--love of place, concern for the planet--are woven together into a unique collection."
Accolades
Thinking Continental has already garnered praise. “This is exactly the kind of book that helps us to understand where and who we are, what it means to be ‘emplaced’ on this planet," says Scott Slovic, coeditor of Ecocritical Aesthetics: Language, Beauty, and the Environment.
“Time and again I found articles, essays, and poems working together like facets of a prism, a succeeding work illuminating the one before it and setting up resonances with the one to follow,” says Robert Root, author of Postscripts: Retrospections on Time and Place.
SueEllen Campbell, author of The Face of the Earth: Natural Landscapes, Science, says, “With the help of literature, these essays and poems lead us from personal particulars to our shared planet, and in so doing, they nourish our filamentary imaginations."
About the Authors
Tom Lynch is a coeditor, with Susan Maher, of Artifacts and Illuminations: Critical Essays on Loren Eiseley (Nebraska, 2012). Susan Naramore Maher is the author of Deep Map Country: Literary Cartography of the Great Plains (Nebraska, 2014). Drucilla Wall is the author of two poetry collections, including The Geese at the Gates. O. Alan Weltzien is the author of Exceptional Mountains: A Cultural History of the Pacific Northwest Volcanoes (Nebraska, 2016)