Elementals

"The exceptionally diverse, fascinating, fact-filled, evocative, and awe-inspiring reflections in Elementals shatters our everyday tendency to take for granted earth, air, water, and fire, whilst illuminating how these entities and forces create and enliven the biosphere. Read and be astonished."--Bron Taylor, author of Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future, and Editor of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature Air, Volume 2 of the 5-Volume Elementals series, is a stunning collection of essays, poetry, and stories that illuminate the dynamic relationships between people and place, human and nonhuman life, mind and the material world, and the living energies that make all life possible.

Infinite and always in motion, constituent of everything, air is unutterably old, and its spirit carries with it the story of everything. What to make of a thing as ineffable as air? The stories and poems in this volume weave a web of words that gives us room to breathe more openly, providing spaces where the imagination can thrive. Welcome to Air. The Elementals series explores how people from various cultures across the planet have worked with these powerful forces of change and regeneration to shape landscapes and deepen personal and place-based relationships. Contributors for Air, Volume 2 include: Gavin Van Horn - Bruce Jennings - Daegan Miller - Aimee Nezhukumatahil - Sohini Basak - Andrew S. Yang - Ellen Bass - Darran Anderson - Nicholas Triolo - Felicia Zamora - Sara Beck - Michele Wick - Ross Gay - Roy Scranton - Antonia Malchik - Benjamin Kunkel - Rita Dove - B?y? Ak?mol?f? - Craig Santos Perez - Gabrielle Bellot With compelling stories and insightful reflections, Air, Volume 2 reveals how people are working with, adapting to, and cocreating relational depth and ecological diversity by respectfully attending to the atmospheric forces that shape our everyday worlds. Proceeds from sales of Elementals benefit the nonprofit organization Center for Humans & Nature, home to a press and farm that explore in-depth and diverse perspectives about what it means to be human in an interconnected world. Humans & Nature Press shares ideas that build community and inspire action. Humans & Nature Farm is a place where ideas take root. The Center is a place to experience human connection with nature and consider our responsibilities to the whole community of life.