If life is a journey, where does one seek the answers to the questions, both grand and small, that present themselves along the path? A collection of 30 poems composed over 25 years, Searching for Wandering Stars explores the varied facets of these questions through many lenses, sometimes gazing to the far reaches of the galaxies while other times peering intently inward. Whether forward or backward in time, inhabiting the exuberance of youth or the resignation of age, or contempl...

In recognition of her long and lauded career as a master essayist, a landmark collection including her most beloved pieces and some rarely seen work, rigorously curated by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author herself. With a foreword by Geoff Dyer.“A writer who never seems tired, who has never plodded her way through a page or sentence, Dillard can only be enjoyed by a wide-awake reader,” warns Geoff Dyer in his foreword to this stellar collection. Carefully culled from her past work,...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1975)These Pulitzer Prize-winning poems and essays by the author of No Nature range from the lucid, lyrical, and mystical to the political. All, however, share a common vision: a rediscovery of North America and the ways by which we might become true natives of the land for the first time.

How many lenses does a dragonfly's eye have?Which is bigger, an eagle's eye or a human's?How many eyes does a scallop have?How do lizards keep their eyes wet?Animal eyes can be really strange and wonderful. How much do you know about the eyes of your animal friends? Find out more in this book.LearningIsland.com believes in the value of children practicing reading for 15 minutes every day. Our 15-Minute Books give children lots of fun, exciting choices t...

Ten essays on nature, ritual, and philosophy "that are so point-blank vital you nearly need to put the book down to settle yourself" ( San Francisco Chronicle).Gretel Ehrlich's world is one of solitude and wonder, pain and beauty, and these elements give life to her stunning prose. Ever since her acclaimed debut, The Solace of Open Spaces, she has illuminated the particular qualities of nature and the self with graceful precision.In Isl...

By any measure, Gary Snyder is one of the greatest poets in America in the last century. From his first book of poems to his latest collection of essays, his work and his example, standing between Tu Fu and Thoreau, have been influential all over the world. Riprap, his first book of poems, was published in Japan in 1959 by Origin Press, and it is the fiftieth anniversary of that groundbreaking book we celebrate with this edition. A small press reprint of that book included Snyder'...

Much of this poised and luminous book is rooted in an idea of epiphany, an aesthetic of everyday incarnation; not the sudden and profound manifestation of essence or meaning, but the smaller steps taken toward it. The moments in which, as Joyce writes, “the soul of the commonest object…seems to us radiant.” If epiphanies are for theologians, perhaps the little steps towards them are for poets like Eve Joseph, and for all of us who attempt to see beyond the names we give things to the names...

The 2016 winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, selected by Carolyn Forché*When I make the crossing, you must not be taken no matter whatthe current gives. When we reach the camp,there will be thousands like us.If I make it onto the plane, you must follow me to the roadsand waiting pastures of America.We will not ride the water today on the shoulders of buffaloas we used to many years ago, nor ...

Gary Snyder's second collection, Myths & Texts, was originally published in 1960 by Totem Press. It is now reissued by New Directions in this completely revised format, with an introduction by the author.The three sequences in the book—"Logging," "Hunting," "Burning"—show the remarkable cohesiveness in Snyder's writings over the years, for we find the poet absorbed, then as now, with Buddhist and Amerindian lore and other interconnections East and West, bu...

Do you want to write? Do you get stuck on what to write about? Greyscale offers forty-one black and white photos to spark your creative self. Use the photos themselves or use over one hundred and fifty creative writing prompts to get your hand moving across the page or your fingers tapping on the keyboard. Greyscale can be used to prompt free writes, or to develop your creative thinking.

In this mesmerizing debut collection, chosen by Mary Oliver for the National Poetry Series, we’re witness to an expansive travelogue of the human spirit that moves throughtfully through multiples ages, cultures, and beings. Each poem explores in depth, through pensive, evocative images, aspects of the human condition and their place within the rich continuum of animal existence. W.B. Keckler presents these poems in a fugal form, uniting the individual works in what he describes as a “holis...

Multi-award-winning poet Don McKay returns with a startling collection of new poems, his first since his Griffin Poetry Prize winning book, Strike/SlipDon McKay is known, among other things, as Canada's foremost poet of the natural world. Readers have come to expect a playful extravagance in his poetry. Most recently, he has opened himself to the mysteries of geologic wonder. "Who needs ghosts when matter /nonchalantly haunts us," he writes. In his new book, perhaps his mo...