Isle: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment
This peer-reviewed journal from the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment is a key journal for nature writing and ecocriticism and is published quarterly by Oxford University Press.
Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism
This ASLE_UKI publication is an open access peer-reviewed journal which includes critical articles on ecopoetry, nature poetry, and other types of writing which explore the relationship between nature and culture in the context of the current environmental crisis. It is published quarterly by Taylor & Francis.
Significant books of criticism and anthologies.
Bryson, Scott. Ecopoetry: A Critical Introduction. Editor. 1st ed., University of Utah Press, 2002.
A significant work of ecocriticism. Thought-provoking essays focused mostly on American poets of the twentieth century. A must read for ecocritical scholars.
Bryson, Scott. The West Side of Any Mountain: Place, Space, and Ecopoetry. 1st., University of Iowa Press, 2005.
Bryson’s foundational text looks at a small selection of ecopoets, including Joy Harjo, W.S. Merwin, and Mary Oliver. Other chapters include reflection and analysis on place, space, time, and ecology in literature.
Cocola, Jim. Places in the Making: A Cultural Geography of American Poetry. 1st. ed., University of Iowa Press, 2016.
This eococritical work reflects on poets throughout the Americas, including Pablo Neruda (Chilean), Craig Santos Perez (Guam), and Ernesto Cardinal (Nicaraguan). Cocola highlights poetic relationships with place and cultural geography.
Dungy, Camille. editor. Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. 1st. Ed., University of Georgia Press, 2009.
This singular and important anthology includes a very large selection of African-American poets, from colonial times to the twenty-first century. The anthology is broken up into ten cycles (themes) including “Talk of the Animals”, “Disasters, Natural and Other”, and “What the Land Remembers.”
Elder, John. Imagining the Earth. 1st ed., University of Illinois Press, 1985.
This foundational work studies twentieth century American poetry and is organized thematically; themes include such concepts as loss, growth and decay cycles, tradition and vision, and evolving consciousness.
Finch, Robert and John Elder. Editors. Nature Writing: The Tradition in English. 2nd ed., W.W. Norton, 2002.
One could argue this book by Finch and Elder is the bible of nature writing. Nature Writing is mostly comprised of essays and memoir; however, some nature and ecopoets, such as Haines, Snyder, and Silko, also wrote transformative nonfiction. Reading their nonfiction in the context of so many other nature writers helps locate them in the tradition of this genre and also provides key insights into the meanings of their poetry.
Fisher-Wirth Ann and Laura Gray-Street. Editors. The Ecopoetry Anthology. 2nd ed., Trinity University Press, 2020.
A absolute requirement for ecocriticism scholars. A provocative introduction to ecopoetry by Robert Hass. The coverage of this anthology is American; the book is split between historical and contemporary poets. The scope of this book, as well as the selection of poetry, is what makes it so essential.
Fletcher, Angus. A New Theory for American Poetry: Democracy, the environment, and the Future of the Imagination. 1st ed., Harvard University Press, 2004.
Fletcher makes a persuasive argument that American poetry has been shaped by nature poets; much of his study focuses on Emerson, Walt Whitman, and John Ashbery.
Gilbert, Roger. Walks in the World: Representation and Experience in Modern American Poetry. 1st ed., Princeton University Press, 2014.
This ecocritical work investigates the way meanders in nature and wilderness give rise to poetry, and to new meanings of poetry. Traditional nature poets as well as many twentieth century ecopoets (Gary Snyder, Theodore Roethke, and William Carlos Williams) are researched; their poetry analyzed.
Hinton, David. The Wilds of Poetry: Adventures in Mind and Landscape. 1st ed., Shambhala, 2017.
Hinton focuses his attention on exploring the meaning of the wild in poetry, touching on poetic revelations around this concept which occurred in early Chinese poetry, American nineteenth century poetry, and American Western poetry from the twentieth century.
Hume, Angela and Gillian Osborne. Editors. Ecopoetics: Essays in the Field. 1st ed., University of Iowa Press, 2018.
This ecocritical analysis uses multiple lenses to study twentieth and twenty-first century ecopoetry, gleaning insights from Native Studies, Sexuality Studies, Black Studies and others.
Keller, Lynn. Recomposing Ecopoetics: North American Poetry of the Self-Conscious Anthropocene. 1st ed., University of Virginia Press, 2017.
This interesting critical work includes some persistent themes in ecopoetry such as deep time and interspecies communication, but also analyzes edgier, political themes: pollution in poetry, dislocation in poetry, and eco-apocalyptic poetry.
Knickerbocker, Scott. Ecopoetics: the Language of Nature, the Nature of Language. 1st ed., University of Massachusetts Press, 2012.
Instead of studying concept, place, and theme in poetry, Knickerbocker reflects on how nature poets and ecopoets use language and sound to conjure the natural world.
Quetchenbach, Bernard W. Back from the Far Field: American Nature Poetry in the Late Twentieth Century. 1st ed., University Press of Virginia, 2000.
Quetchenbach’s book focuses on analyzing a small selection of significant, contemporary ecopoets, specifically demonstrating how their poetry has contributed to and inspired dialogue around environmental/conservation issues.
Reisman, Rosemary M Canfield. Nature Poets. 1st ed., Salem Press, 2012.
This critical survey includes analysis of traditional nature poets such as Emerson, Hopkins, and Thoreau, as well as contemporary ecopoets - A.R. Ammons, Merwin, etc..Some of the distinguishing characteristics between nature poets and copouts are explored.
Ripatrazone, Nick. Wild Belief: Poets and Prophets in the Wilderness. 1st ed., Broadleaf Books, 2021.
Ripatrazone has honed his focus to those devotional writers and poets for whom the wilderness is sacred space and spiritual home.
Serrano, Leonor M.M. and Gamez-Fernandez Cristina M. Editors. Modern Ecopoetry: Reading the Palimset of the More-Than-Human World. 1st ed., Leiden, 2021.
This very recent publication is international in scope and includes many new authors still in the formative stages of their careers.
This LibGuide was created by Maria Kochis June 1st, 2022.
