Writing Matters: An Interview with Mercer University Press
[Poetry] is the way we ritually make meaning and sense of being alive on the earth, and this is important especially now when the earth is changing so drastically—largely because […]
The Way the Moon out now
Holly Haworth “trace[s] the moon through the traceless sky” in this meditation on time’s cyclical nature and how it slips away—and on writing as a way of time-keeping, poetry a […]
Winner of the 2023 Robert B. Silvers Foundation grants for works in progress
Once Upon a High Lonesome out now in Oxford American magazine
My most recent essay, Once Upon a High Lonesome, is out now in the Oxford American’s 24th annual Music Issue. This issue celebrates the multi-hued roots of country music. In […]
“Bodies of Knowledge” out now in Orion magazine
My feature “Bodies of Knowledge” opens this issue of Orion magazine, about the mystery of nature/the nature of mystery. Amitav Ghosh, Lacy Johnson, & Tommy Orange also
Remembering Barry Lopez
Barry Lopez died on Christmas. At The Georgia Review, I joined six other artists and editors in paying tribute to the legacy of this monumental writer.
The World is Made at Rest
You may not hear much from me for the rest of the year, as I continue the difficult labor of guiding my 17-year-old hound dog Banjo to his graceful passing. It’s […]
Readings from A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia
Recently I contributed a poem to the beautiful book A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia edited by Rose McLarney and Laura-Gray Street.
The Best American Science & Nature Writing
It’s out! Thank you to this year’s The Best American Science and Nature Writing editor Sy Montgomery for selecting “The Fading Stars: A Constellation” for the anthology.
Remembering W.S. Merwin
W.S. Merwin, my favorite living poet, beloved to so many readers, passed away March 15, three days ago. With him I shared a love of trees, poems, & the landscapes, […]
“The Fading Stars” selected for the next Best American Science & Nature Writing anthology
I’m happy to share that my essay “The Fading Stars: A Constellation” has been selected for the next Best American Science & Nature Writing anthology! The essay dovetails the cultural […]
“Deep in Time” reprinted in The Utne Reader
Happy to say that The Utne Reader picked up “Deep In Time,” an essay originally published in Orion magazine last summer. Written with the support of an Artist-in-Residence stay […]
The Unbearable Lightness of Being My Father
For so many of us, Father’s Day leads to that inevitable father-hole—father as source of emptiness. As if all our days do not lead us there—or lead from there, all […]
More on the Root-digger
Four summers ago, I went to write a magazine story about a root-digger in the mountains of East Tennessee, coalfield country. I spent five days with her, riding around that […]
Pushcart Prize nomination
Thank you to terrain.org for nominating my essay “Seven Words for Sustenance and Gnawing” for the 2018 Pushcart Prize! I am so honored and grateful.
Best American Travel Writing
My essay “Places that Have No Names,” in which I ride a train from El Paso, Tex., to Lynchburg, Va., was included as notable in the Best […]
Watershed: The Tennessee River
My essay “A Complicated Belonging” accompanies Jeff Rich’s collection of photographs of the Tennessee River watershed, a stunning book that’s been published by Fall Line Press. I’m thrilled to see the book […]
Stories from the Big Island of Hawai’i
I spent five weeks this summer living and working on the Big Island of Hawai’i, in a continuation of what has always felt a disjointed relationship with the place, though […]
“The Soft Things” out now
A piece I wrote last year about native mussel species of the Tennessee River watershed is out now in the Summer issue of the Oxford American. I am delighted to see it […]
Mycelial Threads
Mycelium as both metaphor for, and actual physical reality of, interconnectivity and the cooperative nature of creation has been on my mind lately as a kind of guiding idea. I think […]