My title may sound familiar. It was inspired by Billy Collins, former poet laureate of the United States, and his poem, “ The Trouble with Poetry.” Having read the final stanza of his great poem, "The Trouble with Poetry,” I believe he might forgive such “borrowing” by a largely unrecognized author in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I once saw Collins read, and he was a model of magnanimity.
The trouble with nature writing is much the same as the trouble Collins describes. Every time I read a nature writer’s work, I am back at my desk, pounding the keys of my laptop. Meanwhile, a look at the works of other nature writers is sure to include references to other writers they admire.
I am taking an online course right now, Journey in Place, led by Janisse Ray, a noteworthy nature author credited with writing several books and editing others. She asked us to tell her the titles of our favorites and we soon received a bibliography. I found reading the list exhausting and shudder to think of the time and effort involved in reading all of the books.
Nevertheless, I have read a few nature books, and wrote an article here on Substack about some Chattanooga Nature writers :
Here is a list of Tennessee naturalists and nature writers I published on my website: https://www.rayzimmermanauthor.com/the-rains-come/more-tennessee-nature-writers.
Nature writing here on Substack seems to be equally abundant. Rebecca Wisent, the author of the substack publication Fearless Green, created a list of nature publications on Substach. The list is equally exhausting, but I encourage you to review it. I found a few that I already read as a subscriber and others I want to review.
Bryan Pfeiffer’s Chasing Nature and Bill Davison’s Easy by Nature are two of my favorites, along with Trackless Wild from Janisse Ray. I will stop now before I generate yet another list.
Meanwhile, I have not given up on reading books. I recently finished Mississippi Solo by Eddie L. Harris. In the mode of unprepared adventurers such as Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods) and Cheryl Strayed (Wild), Harris admits his limited familiarity with canoes. He sets out to canoe the Mississippi River from Minnesota to New Orleans.
I discovered the book when I read the excerpt presented in the anthology The Woods Stretched for Miles. Other segments that particularly caught my attention included those from Hatteras Journal by Jan DeBeleiu and Deep Enough for Ivorybills by James Kilgo. After reading a recent online discussion about DeBleiu’s work I found copies of the three books on the Better World Books website. The Woods Stretched for Miles is also available there. It is a good introduction to Kilgo, DeBleiu, Harris, and several other Southern Nature writers.
These all seem interesting, but every time I sit down to read, I get through about half a chapter, and then I am back at my keyboard writing about nature. Then I am dealing with the other problem with nature writing. Both reading and writing about nature send me out the door, with camera and notebook in hand, ready for another outdoor adventure.
Oh boy, don't I know it. I figured there'd be maybe 40 places for nature writing on substack, but nothing like 160 (where we are now, and they're still coming in!) It's trouble, indeed, all these nature writers -- the good kind of trouble, but I definitely need a couple of clones to have enough hours in the day to read all these great pieces, write my own stuff, and spend time in the sun. Whew!
So true! I need days inside days for all this reading, pondering, wandering, appreciating!