An advisory committee made up of faculty, staff and students selected Rising for this year’s book, noting the power and relevance of the book’s stories about the people and communities most at risk from sea level rise. Rush demonstrates how race, class, national origin and income levels further exacerbate vulnerability to rising seas. 

Describing Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore as “the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing,” The Chicago Tribune writes: “Rush travels from vanishing shorelines in New England to hurting fishing communities to retracting islands and, with empathy and elegance, conveys what it means to lose a world in slow motion. Picture the working-class empathy of Studs Terkel paired with the heartbreak of a poet.” Pacific Standard calls the book “a revelation.”

Read more here.

About a week and a half ago I was out having lunch with some dear old friends. After we supped on ceviche and fresh fish, Felipe took them sightseeing and I headed back home to finish my work for the day. When I walked into the apartment I realized I had missed a call from my editor, the fabulous Joey McGarvey. Her message was ebullient: RISING had just been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction! I was, as I am sure you can imagine, completely over-the-moon. I paced the apartment end-to-end for a couple hours, calling those who had lent their testimony to RISING and those whose love and support made this project possible. Now I am telling you all to share in the joy that is being named a finalist for such an incredible prize.

Hi Ya’ll… I just returned from Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica and I am officially unearthing myself from the landslide that is my inbox. If you want to know a little more about what I was up to check out my latest dispatches in National Geographic:

Here’s What Antartica’s Calving Glaciers Look Like Up Close

These Women are Changing the Landscape of Antarctic Research

RISING has been raking up a lot of lovely year-end coverage which I have linked here. RISING is one of the top ten books of the year according to the Chicago Tribune, one of the best books of the year over at the Guardian, one of the best nonfiction books of the year according to Publishers Weekly, and one of the best books of the year according to Library Journal. I could not be more thrilled to have the book celebrated so widely.

A few weeks ago the summer RISING tour concluded but not without a BIG BANG! The New York Times Sunday Review of Books recently featured a fabulous full page review of RISING. Check it out here. 

Here’s what the critics are saying:

“Graceful” (Chicago Tribune), “timely and urgent” (Publishers Weekly), “smart, lyrical” (Terry Tempest Williams) “pulsing, gleaming prose and a stubborn search for, if not hope, then peace in the face of disaster” (Shelf Awareness) &  “so lyrical that you forget how much science it delivers (Star Tribune). 

Come out for the nation-wide RISING tour to share the love.

Hi All,

I will be in NYC on May 3rd giving a talk as part of the CUNY Graduate Center’s “Home in the Time of Climate Change” conference. Stop by! 7 pm. at 85 Saint Nicolas Terrace. Details below.

Last week Publisher’s Weekly gave Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore a starred review I. COULD. NOT. BE. MORE. THRILLED. You can read the whole review in its starry glory below:

 Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore

I had the pleasure of teaming up with Amy Brady, over at the Chicago Review of Books, to bring you this month’s Burning Worlds column. For those of you who don’t know Burning Worlds it is a deep dive into all things climate fiction (Cli-Fi) related.

Check out my “Postcard from Rhode Island” in Pacific Standard’s 10^th Anniversary Issue. Come for the radical resiliency report stay for the fabulous writing from folks like Alexander Chee, Terry Tempest Williams, Bill McKibben, and Patrick Nathan.