Sign-In
Cart
Elemental: A Collection of Michigan Creative Nonfiction
Paperback
Series: Made in Michigan Writers
Letters & EssaysGeneral Sociology
Publisher Price: $24.99
ISBN13: 9780814345672
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Published: Nov 5 2018
Pages: 176
Weight: 0.85
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.90 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
New creative nonfiction by some of Michigan's most well-known and highly acclaimed authors.
Elemental: A Collection of Michigan Creative Nonfiction comes to us from twenty-three of Michigan's most well-known essayists. A celebration of the elements, this collection is both the storm and the shelter. In her introduction, editor Anne-Marie Oomen recalls the ritual dousing of her storytelling group's bonfire: wind, earth, fire, water--all of it simultaneous in that one gesture. . . . In that moment we are bound together with these elements and with this place, the circle around the fire on the shores of a Great Lake closes, complete.
The essays approach Michigan at the atomic level. This is a place where weather patterns and ecology matter. Farmers, miners, shippers, and loggers have built (or lost) their livelihood on Michigan's nature--what could and could not be made out of our elements. From freshwater lakes that have shaped the ground beneath our feet to the industrial ebb and flow of iron ore and wind power--ours is a state of survival and transformation. In the first section of the book, Earth, Jerry Dennis remembers working construction in northern Michigan. Water includes a piece from Jessica Mesman, who writes of the appearance of snow in different iterations throughout her life. The section Wind houses essays about the ungraspable nature of death from Toi Dericotte and Keith Taylor. Fire includes a piece by Mardi Jo Link, who recollects the unfortunate series of circumstances surrounding one of her family members.
Elemental's strength lies in its ability to learn from the past in the hope of defining a wiser future. A lot of literature can make this claim, but not all of it comes together so organically. Fans of nonfiction that reads as beautifully as fiction will love this collection.
Also in
Letters & Essays
Essays V2: Moral And Entertaining On The Various Faculties And Passions Of The Human Mind (1815)
Clarendon, Edward Hyde Earl of
Paperback
Plainwater: Essays and Poetry (by the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)
Carson, Anne
Paperback
Sez I to Myself: The Collected Essays of Frank and Malachy McCourt
McCourt, Malachy
McCourt, Frank
Hardcover
But Have You Read the Book? Romance Edition: 40 Love Stories That Inspired Our Favorite Films
Lopez, Kristen
Hardcover
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee
Paperback
Wonder Is a Lovely Place to Be: 365 Days of Wit, Wisdom, and Irrepressible Imagination
Doyle, Brian
Hardcover
异乡故人（壹嘉-人文）
刘宗坤
Paperback
Corazón Migrante. Ensayos Sobre Lo Que No Puedo Olvidar / Migrant Heart: Essays on What I Cannot Forget
Grande, Reyna
Paperback
Little Apocalypses: Essays on Motherhood, Climate Change, and Hope at the End of the World
Teer, Kaitlyn
Paperback
Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian
Wiman, Christian
Volf, Miroslav
Hardcover
Wonderbook (Revised and Expanded): The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
VanderMeer, Jeff
Paperback
The Impossible Will Take a Little While: Perseverance and Hope in Troubled Times
Loeb, Paul Rogat
Paperback
The Sexuality of Care: On Nursing, Kink, and a Future Without Hospitals
Thekkumkattil, M. K.
Paperback
Gilmore Girls: The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge: The Official Guide to All the Books
Berlin, Erika
Hardcover
Love in the Afternoon, and Evening: Essays and Conversations on Soap Operas
Druckman, Charlotte
Sen, Mayukh
Paperback