Deborah Fleming – författare

Winner, 2020 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.An impassioned call for recognizing and preserving the ecological wonders of the Allegheny PlateauYosemite National Park, Louisiana's bayou, the rocky coasts of New England, the desert Southwest-America's more dramatic locations are frequently celebrated for their natural beauty, but far less has been written about Ohio's unique and beautiful environment. Author Deborah Fleming, who has lived in rural Ohio and cared for its land for decades, shares fourteen interrelated essays, blending her own experiences with both scientific and literary research. Resurrection of the Wild discusses both natural and human histories as it focuses on the Allegheny Plateau and hill country in Ohio's eastern counties.These lyrical meditations delve into life on Fleming's farm, the impacts of the mining and drilling industries, fox hunting, homesteading families, the lives of agriculturalist Louis Bromfield and John Chapman (better known as Johnny Appleseed), and Ohio's Amish community. Fleming finds that our very concept of freedom must be redefined to include preservation and respect for the natural world. Ultimately, Resurrection of the Wild becomes a compelling argument for the importance of ecological preservation in Ohio, and Fleming's perspective will resonate with readers both within and beyond this "forgotten" state's borders.

In the Ohio counties of the Alleghany Plateau, 9th-century barns hewn from old-growth wood rest near remnant forests, reminders of the state's deep agricultural roots and rich ecological past. Through fourteen linked, meditative essays, Deborah Fleming, author of the award-winning Resurrection of the Wild: Meditations on Ohio's Natural Landscape, persuasively and passionately argues for protecting these vestiges of the region's natural and rural history.Fleming describes domesticated and wild nature on her farm delves into Ohio's rich history of agriculture tackles the issues of litter and pollution decries the practice of hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") and reflects on changes in communities bordering rivers, which are often the most exploited by extraction industries.The result is an evocative collection, which traces Ohio's natural and cultural history—and serves as an urgent call to preserve its splendor.