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Orion Bird Walks

May 05, 2008

Beginning in about 1998, Orion’s staff has gone on bird walks on Friday mornings in April and May. We meet on a marshy piece of property in Great Barrington that is owned by the Myrin Institute and march around for an hour or so before heading for work. Over the years dozens of staff members, friends, and Great Barrington residents have participated in these walks, and we’ve seen some pretty good birds in the process, including merlin, golden-winged warbler, Brewster’s warbler, and Lincoln’s sparrow.

The 2008 season is off to a slow start—not a lot of birds around yet—but it’s been cool and migration seems to be running a little late. We’re counting on it to heat up a bit.

Left to right: Great Barrington resident Elaine Radiss, OGN intern Silas Branson, and Orion development officer Chris Nye on an Orion bird walk, May 1, 2008.

Three Pushcarts for Orion

May 05, 2008

Three pieces that appeared in Orion in the past year have won 2007 Pushcart Prizes:

Keith Althaus’s poem ”Rain”
Bill DeBuys, “Errands in the Forest”
Anthony Doerr, ”Window of Possibility”

All three will appear in the forthcoming 2009 anthology, “The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses.” These anthologies, which strive to recognize the outstanding writing published by small presses, literary journals, and magazines, have been published annually since 1976. Read more about Pushcart here.

Orion Intern Is a Poetry Finalist

May 01, 2008

Amelie Dyzmann, a senior at Miss Hall’s School in nearby Pittsfield, Mass., has been interning at Orion one morning a week since September. She helps with the Reviews department, aided in the organization in the Orion Book Award, and has taken on the project of designing notecards that feature poetry Orion has published. In this vein, Amelie memorized a Mary Oliver poem, “Lead,” for a school-wide recitation contest. Her performance was judged best among all the seniors, placing her in the top four among approximately 200 students. Not bad for someone who speaks English as a second language! Amelie is headed back to her native Germany this month, where she plans to pursue an internship at a theater company in Hamburg. We’ll miss her.

2008 Orion Book Award Presented in New York City

April 25, 2008

A fine time was had by all at the presentation of the 2008 Orion Book Award, which took place on April 16 at Reeves Contemporary in New York City. Many thanks to all who attended, especially Cynthia Reeves for turning her gallery over to Orion for the evening, and David Grant and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for its support of the award.

W.W. Norton editor Alane Salierno Mason and 2008 Orion Book Award winner Diane Ackerman

Selection committee chairperson Kathleen Dean Moore

Ginger Strand and selection committee member David Rothenberg

Orion Meets Elvis

April 25, 2008

From Orion editor Jennifer Sahn:

When loyal butterfly blogger Bob Pyle realized that his butterfly travel plans included a trip to Graceland, leaving a copy of the Orion issue with Rebecca Solnit’s article ”One Nation Under Elvis: An Environmentalism for Us All” at the grave site seemed the proper thing to do. Problem was, the Graceland phone operators are very intent on getting all visitors to take lengthy and pricey tours. Bob, having neither the time or the pocket change for that option, pressed and pressed and finally was told that in fact there are open visitor hours to Elvis’s grave between 7 and 8 a.m. Bob drove all night to get there, and joined a ragtag group of devotees in paying homage to The King. The grounds were otherwise all but empty at that hour, and quite delightful, Bob reports. And though it was too early for butterfly activity, he was able to ask Joseph Whittle, a friendly fellow reveler with a digital camera, to deliver the following photo to us.

Just Released: Teacher’s Guide

April 16, 2008

The Future of Nature Teacher’s Guide, which has been in the works for a over a year, is now finished and available on the Milkweed Editions web site. The Guide was compiled by Tom Hillard, who is the husband of former Orion assistant editor Kim Leeder. 

Gretel Ehrlich Visits Orion

April 10, 2008

On April 8 the Orion staff had the pleasure of a visit from author Gretel Ehrlich, who is teaching this semester at nearby Williams College. Gretel, the author of many books, including The Solace of Open Spaces and A Match to the Heart, told us stories of her travels in the far north, especially Greenland.
Left to right: Erik Hoffner, Gretel Ehrlich, Jennifer Sahn, Katie Yale, and Chris Nye. 

Congratulations to William deBuys

April 09, 2008

William deBuys has been named a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow; he is the author of ”A Quirk in the Law,” published in the November/December 2006 Orion.

2008 Orion Book Award Winner Announced

April 01, 2008

The winner of the 2008 Orion Book Award is The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story, by Diane Ackerman. Click here for more information. 

Orion’s 2008 Readers’ Book Award Winner Announced

April 01, 2008

And the winner is Sky Time in Gray’s River by long-time Orion columnist and butterfly-chaser extraordinaire Robert Michael Pyle. We’re grateful to the 378 people who voted…