Nature of Desert Nature

Gary Paul Nabhan is the Kellogg Endowed Chair at the University of Arizona's Southwest Center. He is author or editor of more than thirty books, including Enduring Seeds, Gathering in the Desert, and Food from the Radical Center. Honored with a MacArthur 'Genius' Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing, and other awards, Nabhan has lived in the desert for more than forty years.

We’ve been slow to warm to deserts as places worth learning and caring about. This original and probing little book, led by one of the pioneers in our understanding of desert ecology and culture, should lay to rest the notion that there isn’t much to see (or feel) in these lands of little rain. A bracing and deeply thoughtful collection that should appeal to desert rationalists and romantics everywhere."—Ben A. Minteer, author of The Fall of the Wild: Extinction, De-Extinction, and the Ethics of Conservation

• AcknowledgmentsThe Nature of Desert Nature: A Deep History of Everything that Sticks, Stinks, Stings, Sings, Swings, Springs, or Clings in Arid Landscapes — Gary Paul NabhanNative Ways Of Envisioning DesertsWhere Wilderness Begins — Ofelia ZepedaHeeno — Alberto Mellado MorenoI Commit to Memory the Desert Village, My Family, and My Home — Octaviana V. TrujilloGrowing Up DesertedA Sense of Place and a Sense of Self: The Acquisition of Compassion from the Desert — Paul DaytonMy Childhood Desert — Alberto BÚRquezReconciling Cooperation vs. Competition Among Desert Creatures — Ray PierottiAt the Desert’s Edge — Benjamin T. WilderDesert ContemplativesThe Insurmountable Darkness of Love — Douglas ChristieFalling in Love — Tessa BieleckiEncountering Openness — Thomas Lowe FleischnerA Hoosier’s Desert — Father David DennyListening to Our Sibling Deserts: RestoringIndigenous Mindfulness — Jack LoefflerDesert As Atzlan And Divided TurfClearly Marked Ghosts — Francisco CantÚA White Body Out in the Desert — Homero AridjisThe Desert Dark — RubÉN MartÍNezDeserts Seen From Other PlacesDesert Epiphany — Larry StevensLonging for el Monte — Exequiel EzcurraOriented Southwest — Curt MeineA Thousand Miles from Inhabited Land — James AronsonDesert City / Ocean Home: Five Offerings of Gratitude — Alison Hawthorne DemingDesert As Art / Ecology NexusOn the Edge: Listen to Your Plants — Thomas M. AntonioEmpty and Full | Far and Near | Alone and Together — Ellen MacmahonA Bright and Shining Place — Stephen TrimbleDesert Sonnet — Andy WilkinsonPostscript. Staring at the Walls: Views of the Desert in Southern Arizona Public Art — Paul MirochaContributors