Luke Wallin wrote Conservation Writing: Essays at the Crossroads of Nature and Culture, from which the present essay is adapted; he contributed to, and co-edited, Nature and Identity in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Many of his award-winning novels for children and young adults explore conflicts between nature and culture. Wallin holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, as well as graduate degrees in Philosophy and Regional Planning. He has worked on conservation projects in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, the American Southeast, and in France. He is Professor Emeritus at The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and teaches in the brief-residency MFA in Creative Writing program of Spalding University. His latest book, co-written with daughter Eva Gordon, is The Everything Guide to Writing Children’s Books, 2nd Edition, published in 2011. lukewallin.com
Choices in Ecology Beyond the light of my desk lamp and computer screen, and the hum of my air conditioner, there exists a coastal hardwood swamp of great mystery. Though I live in the old settled East, not far from Providence and Boston, even closer to Fall River and New Bedford, my garden and lawn [...]