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Trespass: Ecotone Essayists Beyond the Boundaries of Place, Identity, and Feminism
“Perhaps a future of environmental writing begins in trying to meet all people where they are, wherever they are,” writes Lauret E. Savoy. “It’s acknowledging and honoring difference as enriching.” In Trespass , twenty women essayists challenge the traditional boundaries of place-based writing to make room for greater complexity: explorations of body, sexuality, gender, and race. Traveling across time and place―from a Minnesota summer camp to the peacock-lined streets of Kerala, India―these essays reveal their authors as artful and singular observers of their homes, lives, and histories. Emerging writers along with celebrated voices in the field, including Belle Boggs, Camille T. Dungy, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and Terry Tempest Williams, reclaim spaces that have always been theirs.
Observing the policing of Detroit, Aisha Sabatini Sloan bears witness to environmental racism, and finds community with family and neighbors. Toni Jensen traces the erasure of Native culture on college campuses and challenges notions of safety in light of sexual and gun violence. Laurie Clements Lambeth paints the strength and fragility of the human body through the lens of a progressive neurological disease. And Shuchi Saraswat’s trip to the Bay Area to document a ceremony honoring Ganesha leads her on her own journey home.
Originally published in the pages of Ecotone, the award-winning literary magazine that reimagines place, these essays recount how women uniquely shape and are shaped by their environments. Together, they spark new conversations, showing the ways we forge identity through larger cultural considerations―in our bodies, our neighborhoods, and the natural world.
Observing the policing of Detroit, Aisha Sabatini Sloan bears witness to environmental racism, and finds community with family and neighbors. Toni Jensen traces the erasure of Native culture on college campuses and challenges notions of safety in light of sexual and gun violence. Laurie Clements Lambeth paints the strength and fragility of the human body through the lens of a progressive neurological disease. And Shuchi Saraswat’s trip to the Bay Area to document a ceremony honoring Ganesha leads her on her own journey home.
Originally published in the pages of Ecotone, the award-winning literary magazine that reimagines place, these essays recount how women uniquely shape and are shaped by their environments. Together, they spark new conversations, showing the ways we forge identity through larger cultural considerations―in our bodies, our neighborhoods, and the natural world.
- GenresNonfictionEssaysNature
296 pages, Paperback
Published April 30, 2019
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114 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 31, 2019
Camille T. Dungy is cinematic & visceral as she discovers local foods while visiting a small town in the Arctic. Lauret E. Savoy is inspiring & visionary to redefine environmental writing to be more inclusive. Discover and reimagine more place-based writing from Ecotonemagazine.org
May 16, 2021
This was such a stunning, smart collection of essays! I loved the different ways each one intersected with issues of place, identity, and feminism. I plan to teach some of these pieces in future classes. Highly, highly recommend!
April 24, 2021
A Disturbance of Birds is hands-down one of the best essays I have read. It made me ache and brought a tear to my eye. I'm sure anything that talks about birds gets me more these days, since I am listening to birdsong and delighted by these little feathered friends all around me - but still, this essay was exquisite.
Hypaa Jarven was hilarious and also a great piece on whiteness and searching for a culture or meaning beyond our race. The very first essay, Imaginary Children, introduced me to the idea of infertility, which I'm not sure I'd ever confronted in art (though I did read Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in high school, I clearly understood none of it). The last line of Fake IDs was powerful. Going Downhill From Here (and A Disturbance of Birds) forced me to reflect on the real possibilities of unexpected and drastic health issues in the future, and how I would deal with them. D is for Dance of the Hours begrudgingly gave me some empathy for a particular policewoman, and reminded me of the many questions we need to resolve as we move towards a police and prison free society from our very violent one. Though I don't resonate with the need to believe in the afterlife, Sign Here If You Exist was full of powerful ruminations on nature, the soul, and our yearning to be remembered. And overall, I loved the place-based focused of this collection, which was definitely stronger in some sections than others - the house in Karachi, the campus in Carry, the casinos of Atlantic City - I love the lush descriptions of place that feel lived-in, embodied.
Hypaa Jarven was hilarious and also a great piece on whiteness and searching for a culture or meaning beyond our race. The very first essay, Imaginary Children, introduced me to the idea of infertility, which I'm not sure I'd ever confronted in art (though I did read Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in high school, I clearly understood none of it). The last line of Fake IDs was powerful. Going Downhill From Here (and A Disturbance of Birds) forced me to reflect on the real possibilities of unexpected and drastic health issues in the future, and how I would deal with them. D is for Dance of the Hours begrudgingly gave me some empathy for a particular policewoman, and reminded me of the many questions we need to resolve as we move towards a police and prison free society from our very violent one. Though I don't resonate with the need to believe in the afterlife, Sign Here If You Exist was full of powerful ruminations on nature, the soul, and our yearning to be remembered. And overall, I loved the place-based focused of this collection, which was definitely stronger in some sections than others - the house in Karachi, the campus in Carry, the casinos of Atlantic City - I love the lush descriptions of place that feel lived-in, embodied.
March 31, 2022
A mighty wonderful collection!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews