Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date.
For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now.
The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Inspiring. . . . insights that are scientific, intimate and surprising. . . . a call to action for those who still care."—The Washington Post
Inspired by forests, trees, leaves, roots, and seeds, The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape invites readers to discover an unexpected and imaginative language to better read and write the natural world around us and reclaim our relationship with it. In this gorgeously illustrated and deeply thoughtful collection, Katie Holten gifts readers her tree alphabet and uses it to masterfully translate and illuminate beloved lost and new, original writing in praise of the natural world. With an introduction from Ross Gay, and featuring writings from over fifty contributors including Ursula K. Le Guin, Ada Limón, Robert Macfarlane, Zadie Smith, Radiohead, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, James Gleick, Elizabeth Kolbert, Plato, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, Holten illustrates each selection with an abiding love and reverence for the magic of trees. She guides readers on a journey from creation myths and cave paintings to the death of a 3,500-year-old cypress tree, from Tree Clocks in Mongolia and forest fragments in the Amazon to the language of fossil poetry, unearthing a new way to see the natural beauty all around us and an urgent reminder of what could happen if we allow it to slip away.
The Language of Trees considers our relationship with literature and landscape, resulting in an astonishing fusion of storytelling and art and a deeply beautiful celebration of trees through the ages.
1141997002
The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Inspiring. . . . insights that are scientific, intimate and surprising. . . . a call to action for those who still care."—The Washington Post
Inspired by forests, trees, leaves, roots, and seeds, The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape invites readers to discover an unexpected and imaginative language to better read and write the natural world around us and reclaim our relationship with it. In this gorgeously illustrated and deeply thoughtful collection, Katie Holten gifts readers her tree alphabet and uses it to masterfully translate and illuminate beloved lost and new, original writing in praise of the natural world. With an introduction from Ross Gay, and featuring writings from over fifty contributors including Ursula K. Le Guin, Ada Limón, Robert Macfarlane, Zadie Smith, Radiohead, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, James Gleick, Elizabeth Kolbert, Plato, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, Holten illustrates each selection with an abiding love and reverence for the magic of trees. She guides readers on a journey from creation myths and cave paintings to the death of a 3,500-year-old cypress tree, from Tree Clocks in Mongolia and forest fragments in the Amazon to the language of fossil poetry, unearthing a new way to see the natural beauty all around us and an urgent reminder of what could happen if we allow it to slip away.
The Language of Trees considers our relationship with literature and landscape, resulting in an astonishing fusion of storytelling and art and a deeply beautiful celebration of trees through the ages.
29.95
In Stock
51
The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape
With exquisitely chosen selections, from Plato to Ada Limon, Carl Phillips, Elizabeth Kolbert and Robin Wall Kimmerer, artist and editor Katie Holten‘s anthology — and Tree Alphabet! — will surely captivate. A sparkling, play-filled, elegiac, celebration of all things trees — wild, tamed, harnessed and rewilded — to forever change how you walk through the world.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Inspiring. . . . insights that are scientific, intimate and surprising. . . . a call to action for those who still care."—The Washington Post
Inspired by forests, trees, leaves, roots, and seeds, The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape invites readers to discover an unexpected and imaginative language to better read and write the natural world around us and reclaim our relationship with it. In this gorgeously illustrated and deeply thoughtful collection, Katie Holten gifts readers her tree alphabet and uses it to masterfully translate and illuminate beloved lost and new, original writing in praise of the natural world. With an introduction from Ross Gay, and featuring writings from over fifty contributors including Ursula K. Le Guin, Ada Limón, Robert Macfarlane, Zadie Smith, Radiohead, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, James Gleick, Elizabeth Kolbert, Plato, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, Holten illustrates each selection with an abiding love and reverence for the magic of trees. She guides readers on a journey from creation myths and cave paintings to the death of a 3,500-year-old cypress tree, from Tree Clocks in Mongolia and forest fragments in the Amazon to the language of fossil poetry, unearthing a new way to see the natural beauty all around us and an urgent reminder of what could happen if we allow it to slip away.
The Language of Trees considers our relationship with literature and landscape, resulting in an astonishing fusion of storytelling and art and a deeply beautiful celebration of trees through the ages.
Katie Holten is an artist and activist. In 2003, she represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale. She has had solo exhibitions at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Nevada Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane. Her drawings investigate the tangled relationships between humans and the natural world. She has created Tree Alphabets, a Stone Alphabet, and a Wildflower Alphabet to share the joy she finds in her love of the more-than-human world. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Artforum, and frieze. She is a visiting lecturer at the New School of the Anthropocene. If she could be a tree, she would be an Oak.
Ross Gay is the author of The Book of Delights, a genre-defying book of essays, and three books of poetry: Against Which, Bringing the Shovel Down, and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. He is also the co-author, with Aimee Nezhukumatathil, of the chapbook "Lace and Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens," in addition to being co-author, with Richard Wehrenberg, Jr., of the chapbook, "River." He is a founding editor, with Karissa Chen and Patrick Rosal, of the online sports magazine Some Call it Ballin', in addition to being an editor with the chapbook presses Q Avenue and Ledge Mule Press. Ross is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Ross teaches at Indiana University.
CONTENTS Introduction | Ross Gay | xi Tree Alphabet | KATIE HOLTEN | xiv Trees Typeface (A Rewilding Tool) | KATIE HOLTEN | xvSEEDS, SOIL, SAPLINGS The Ojibwe New Year | WINONA LaDUKE | 3 He who plants a tree Plants a hope | LUCY LARCOM | 7 Michael Hamburger | TACITA DEAN | 9 I am the seed of the free | SOJOURNER TRUTH | 11P alas por Pistolas | PEDRO REYES | 13 Acorn Bread Recipe | LUCY O’HAGAN | 15BUDS, BARK, BRANCHES Oak Gall Ink Recipe | RACHAEL HAWKWIND | 19 Branches, Leaves, Roots and Trunks | ROBERT MACFARLANE | 23 Tree Theory, Biogeography and Branching | BRIAN J. ENQUIST | 29 Cultivating the Courage to Sin | ANDREA BOWERS | 33 The Wrong Trees | ZADIE SMITH | 35 Fractal Vision | JAMES GLEICK | 37LEAVES & TRUNKS It’s the Season I Often Mistake | ADA LIMÓN | 43 from Why Information Grows | CÉSAR A. HIDALGO | 45 Tree University | FUTUREFARMERS | 47 from Funes, the Memorious | JORGE LUIS BORGES | 49 Under a Plane Tree | PLATO | 51 Fake Plastic Trees | RADIOHEAD | 55 The Trees Breathe Out, We Breathe In | LUCHITA HURTADO | 57 The Elm Stand | THOMAS PRINCEN | 59 The Exact Opposite of Distance | IRENE KOPELMAN | 63 The Innocence of Trees | AGNES MARTIN | 65 Medicine of the Tree People | VALERIE SEGREST | 67 Blad 2 / Leaf 2 | ÅSE EG JØRGENSEN | 69FLOWERS & FRUITS from Sketch of the Analytical Engine | ADA LOVELACE | 73 An Droighneán Donn | SUSAN McKEOWN | 75 The Tree with the Apple Tattoo | NICOLA TWILLEY | 77 Millenniums of Intervention | AMY HARMON | 81 Cacao: The World Tree and Her Planetary Mission | JONATHON MILLER WEISBERGER | 85 Tree of Life | ROZ NAYLOR | 91FORESTS Two Trees Make a Forest | JESSICA J. LEE | 97 The Word for World is Forest | URSULA K. LE GUIN | 99 from How Forests Think | EDUARDO KOHN | 101 from Forests | GAIA VINCE | 107Bewilderness | E.J. McADAMS | 111 from Islands on Dry Land | ELIZABETH KOLBERT | 113 Ghost Forest | MAYA LIN | 117 Forest | FORREST GANDER and KATIE HOLTEN | 121 FAMILY TREES Being | TANAYA WINDER | 127 BRUTES: Meditations on the myth of the voiceless | AMITAV GHOSH | 129 Trophic Cascade | CAMILLE T. DUNGY | 133 Catalpa Tree | AIMEE NEZHUKUMATAtHI | 135 Notes for a Salmon Creek Farm Revival | FRITZ HAEG | 141 We Are the ARK | MARY REYNOLDS | 145 Among the Trees | CARL PHILLIPS | 149 Mother Trees | SUZANNE SIMARD | 157TREE TIME Tree Clocks and Climate Change | NICOLE DAVI | 161 from Alphabet | INGER CHRISTENSEN | 165 The Horse Chestnut | CHARLES GAINES | 167 Future Library | KATIE PATERSON | 169 Liberty Trees | ROBERT SULLIVAN | 171 January 23, 2015 | ANDREA ZITTEL | 179 A Matter of Time | AMY FRANCESCHINI | 181 All the Time in the World | RACHEL SUSSMAN | 185TREE PEOPLE Mujer Waorani / Waorani Women | NEMO ANDY GUIQUITA | 191 TREE x OFFICE | NATALIE JEREMIJENKO | 193 This is not our world with trees in it | RICHARD POWERS | 195 I Want to Be a Tree | SUMANA ROY | 197 What’s Happening? | EXTINCTION SYMBOL | 199 Declaration of Interbeing | KINARI WEBB | 203ROOTS & RESISTANCE Why Are There No Trees in Paleolithic Cave Drawings? | WILLIAM CORWIN and COLIN RENFREW | 207 Speaking of Nature | ROBIN WALL KIMMERER | 211 “Joy is Such a Human Madness”: The Duff Between Us | ROSS GAY | 223 Of Trees In Paint; In Teeth; In Wood; In Sheet-Iron; In Stone; In Mountains; In Stars | AENGUS WOODS | 225 Legere and βιβλιοθήκη: The Library as Idea and Space | ANNA-SOPHIE SPRINGER | 233 Lessons from Fungi | TOBY KIERS | 241 They Carry Us With Them: The Great Tree Migration | CHELSEA STEINAUER-SCUDDER | 245AFTER TREES Afterword: Another World is Possible | KATIE HOLTEN | 253 Bibliograph | 259 Sources | 279 Contributors | 287 Acknowledgments | 299 Colophon | 304
Take a beat and think about your perfect outdoor reading spot. Is it on a sandy towel in front of crashing waves? Maybe you’re more of a “picnic blanket under tangled branches in the park” kind of reader. Whatever your fancy, taking a book outside is one of our favorite activities, especially when those books […]
Mother’s Day is right around the corner and whether you’re shopping for your partner, grandmother, or a mother figure in your life, it’s high time you give them a great book. We know there’s all kinds of moms, with all different kinds of hobbies and interests, from the musical to the outdoorsy to the mindful […]
