Book Deal!

Hi All,

 

I could not be more pleased to announce that I just signed a book deal with Milkweed Editions for the publication of my latest essay collection, Rising: Essays from America’s Disappearing Shore. It will hit bookshelves in early 2018! Until then you can follow me on Twitter to get all the latest updates @elizabetharush.

Great coverage of my Climate Change Storytelling course in Kennebec Journal

Hi All,

 

This past spring I taught a course called “Climate Change and the Stories We Tell” wherein my students interviewed longtime Maine residents about the ways in which climate change had already transformed their lives and livelihoods. I gave a presentation about the course last week at the University of Maine and the Kennebec Journal was there. Check out their coverage here. 

 

And if you want to see the fabulous immersive archive of climate change stories my students designed and populated go to: www.bates/climatechange.

 

 

Science in Society Award

It is an honor to have been selected by the National Association of Science Writers for their Science in Society Award for my Urban Omnibus article on managed retreat in Staten Island.

 

Below is an excerpt from the press release:

 

“Leaving the Sea: Staten Islanders Experiment with Managed Retreat” was published Feb. 11, 2015, in the online Urban Omnibus. In the article, Rush covers the debate in Staten Island communities over whether to stay put or retreat from the shoreline, in the face of sea-level rise and stronger storms arising from climate change. She explores the costs and benefits of the strategy of “managed retreat,” whereby homeowner buyouts address the realities of climate change in vulnerable coastal communities. The judges commented, “Truly local reporting is crucial not just during natural disasters, when the national media may be present, but during the long, often painful and messy aftermath. That’s when decisions are made, too often without scrutiny, that can shape the nature of a town and the fates of its residents for generations to come. In her article, Rush follows one such set of decisions, made after Hurricane Sandy’s floodwaters receded. She does so with tenacity, commitment, and empathy. Her richly reported feature sheds light on the tough choices and many policy and administrative complexities impacting one flooded neighborhood. In so doing, the piece provides a clarifying look at unresolved facets of local-scale resilience and recovery that small communities around the world are likely to encounter as the impacts of climate change intensify in the coming years.”

 

Honored to be named the Howard Foundation Fellow in Creative Nonfiction

The Howard Foundation awards a limited number of fellowships each year for independent projects in selected fields, targeting its support specifically to early mid-career individuals, those who have achieved recognition for at least one major project. Nine  fellowships of $33,000 were awarded in April 2016 for 2016-2017 in the fields of Creative Non-Fiction, Literary Translation into English, Film Studies, and Literary StudiesI am honored to announce that I have been granted a Howard Foundation Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction to aid in the completion of my book Something Like Vertigo: Essays from the American Shore.

The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation was established in 1952 by Nicea Howard in memory of her grandparents. Miss Howard had a special interest in furthering the personal development of promising individuals at the crucial middle stages of their careers in the liberal and creative arts.

 

Still Lifes from a Vanishing City to launch this week at Art Vietnam Gallery in Hanoi

It is with great pleasure that I am returning to Hanoi this week for a solo exhibition and book launch. Still Lifes from a Vanishing City will be on view from Friday April 15th – April 29th at Hanoi’s leading art gallery, Art Vietnam. Come stop by and say hello if you are in the neighborhood. And if you can’t make it at least check out this nice write-up by the Hanoi Grapevine. 

 

 

Honored to be the Visiting Writer at Chris Woodside’s Unearthing Ideas in the Elements Workshop this summer

Unearthing Ideas in the Elements: A Weekend on Stone Pond with Chris Woodside, writer and editor of Appalachia journal

Walking, observing, and listening in nature opens writers to new ideas. How does that work? Join me from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon, June 17-19, for my second annual workshop on beautiful Stone Pond in Marlborough, New Hampshire. We welcome a small (up to 15) group of writers from all genres. Our fee covers room, board, and all materials.

 

Find out more here. 

Honored to be selected as a Writer-in-Residence at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest this Summer

I was recently invited to be the Writer-in-Residence at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest this Summer. These residencies are part of the Long-Term Ecological Reflections program sponsored by the Spring Creek Project, in conjunction with the U.S. ForestService. Now in its twelfth year, and intended to continue for 200 years, Long-Term Ecological Reflections aims to encourage writing and thinking that is finely attuned to place, and to the deep continuity of natural and human processes. Previous writers-in-residence at the Andrews Forest have included Jane Hirshfield, Joseph Bruchac, Linda Hogan, Scott Russell Sanders, MaryEvelyn Tucker, DJ Spooky, Pattiann Rogers, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Sandra Alcosser, Robert Michael Pyle, Robin Kimmerer, Scott Slovic, and David Gessner among others. I couldn’t be more honored or thrilled. Viva la Oregon!