The Orion Blog

Getting Over Environmentalism: Live Web Event with Paul Kingsnorth, 1/18

January 05, 2012, by Orion staff

UPDATE: Listen to the audio recording of this event.

Has environmentalism lost its way? What does sustainability really have to do with a healthy planet? Please plan to join a dialogue with Paul Kingsnorth, author of “Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist” in the January/February 2012 issue of Orion, on January 18th, at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific.

According to Kingsnorth, environmentalism has effectively died: it’s not only been absorbed by the political left, which has diluted its ecocentric message; it’s also become enamored with “sustainable economics,” which, according to Kingsnorth, amounts to business-as-usual without the carbon. Has the movement’s original deep connection to nature been lost? Are green projects doing more harm than good? Kingsnorth will be joined by authors Lierre Keith and David Abram to discuss and expand on these thoughts during this live web event. This event is free and open to all, but registration is required—please register here.

Orion hosts live web events every month. Sign up here to be alerted by e-mail when a new one is announced.

Orion: Thirty Years

December 30, 2011, by Orion staff

From Occupy Wall Street to the incendiary Derrick Jensen, from Sy Montgomery’s exploration of octopus intelligence to James Howard Kunstler’s road map to the reformation of American cities, Orion brings perspective, humor, and meaning to the ways people think about connecting with the planet and with each other. Nature, creativity, and community—these are the values for which Orion has stood for the last thirty years. We are honored to be with you for the next thirty.

Your comments about Orion are welcome.

Poetry: “Parking Lot In Snow”

December 22, 2011, by Orion staff

Winter’s here in the northern hemisphere, and as we pull on our gloves and fire up the wood stove, the planet spins itself, slowly, steadily, back into the light. We wish you moments of peace during the busy holiday season, like this one, caught in time by Lia Purpura in our January/February 2007 issue.

Parking Lot In Snow

Sitting,
deepened by
this ticking sound
which is itself a kind of breath
joining my breath
slowing impatience
measuring nerves
so that these too
might blow
and scatter and land.

Then clearing the windows off
and waiting
for the pleasure of growing dark again.

-Lia Purpura

Read more poetry published in Orion, here.

What Kind of Love Is This?

December 20, 2011, by Kathleen Dean Moore

The fir tree stands in the bay window, still fragrant with the spice of the forest. Boxes of ornaments litter the floor. Laughing and bending over the work, every adult in the family is trying to untangle strings of Christmas lights. A tiny girl practices walking backward, beeping like a truck. She backs into a cardboard box. Reaching out small hands, she pulls open the flaps. There, tucked into tissue paper, lies an angel—brown curls, pale feet, and wings made of white feathers. The child pokes at the wings.

“Duck!” she says.

She brings the angel’s dainty nose close to her own.

“Quack!” she says.

From that moment, the child and the angel cannot be separated. Like any mother duck, she crouches on the floor, tucks the angel under her chest, and lies there with her eyes closed and her arms spread, sheltering the angel. At nightfall, the child’s mother wraps a blanket around the angel and the child and carries them both to bed.

By morning, glittering gifts will pile under the tree, but in my mind, those gifts will be inconsequential. The gift that I want for my granddaughter is the soft shelter of what might be earth, but could well be mistaken for heaven. I want her to know the iridescence of ducks and their tail-up feeding on a flustered lake. I want her to know the lake itself, the green smell of it, its coolness at dusk. I want her to be safe in this world, and I want the world to be safe in her arms.

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Poetry: “Wild Onion”

December 13, 2011, by Orion staff

Here’s a line from Janice N. Harrington’s poem in the September/October issue of Orion we won’t soon forget: “Broken, rubbed between two fingers / you linger like nostalgia, regret, grief.” Sharp, desolate, beautiful—Harrington’s poem is a perfect entrée to winter.

Listen: the author reads “Wild Onion” aloud.

Read more poetry published in Orion, here.

Bookshelf: Oil on Water

December 08, 2011, by Helon Habila

Helon Habila is the author of the novels Waiting for an Angel, Measuring Time, and, most recently, Oil on Water, reviewed in the September/October 2011 issue of Orion. The novel, set in the oil fields of Nigeria—his real-life birthplace—is a memorable example of how fiction can successfully address political issues. We asked Helon a few questions about growing up in Nigeria and the challenge of writing political fiction.

Oil on Water came about accidentally. I was contacted by a film company in the UK to write a script on oil pollution and violence in the Nigerian Delta, which reached its peak in 2007. I had been to the Delta before, and as a Nigerian I was quite conscious of the topicality and the seriousness of the problem, but I had never thought of writing on it. It was just too murky, and often it wasn’t easy to tell the good people from the bad people. I told the film company so, and their reply reminded me again of how important it is to always remain engaged, of the necessity of art to always be on the side of the people. They said, If you don’t tell the story, who else will? Shell?

Of course I have written on political issues before Oil on Water—I come from a tradition of political writing. African literature has never had the leisure of being art for art’s sake. My first novel, Waiting for an Angel, was an attempt to make sense of the 1990s military dictatorship in Nigeria. My second novel, Measuring Time, is in the same tradition. But at the back of my mind is always a fear, as an artist, of reaching a point where I begin to be seen as a voice for my country, or for a certain group. To become predictable. Or I could keep quiet, turn a blind eye on the corruption and dysfunction that passes for government in my country. But I wanted to find some sort of middle ground between the two—which I think I was able to do in Oil on Water.

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Art for Advocacy: Live Discussion with Photographer Chris Jordan, 12/13

December 06, 2011, by Orion staff

What is it about visual art that changes the viewer? What are the pitfalls and opportunities inherent to art that advocates? Whether you’re a fan of inspiring images or you want to create art for advocacy yourself, please plan to join a dialogue on the topic hosted by Orion on December 13th, at 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific.

Our guests will be Chris Jordan, a photographer we’ve been proud to showcase in recent years (his series “Intolerable Beauty” was featured in the March/April 2007 issue of Orion), and Orion‘s Picture Editor Jason Houston, both of whom will discuss their inspirations, narrate a slide show of their work, and answer audience questions. This event is free and open to all, but registration is required—please register here.

Orion hosts live web events every month. Sign up here to be alerted by e-mail when a new one is announced.

How to Start Your Kitchen Garden

November 30, 2011, by Brian Doyle

Whereas we have three children, and they eat like teenagers, being teenagers, we figured we should take advantage of Oregon, where you can drop a seed by accident and have a crop by noon, so we laid out a garden, and planted tomatoes and beans and garlic, and sat back and waited for noon.

Within minutes jays appeared, dug up most of the seeds and starts, ate them with alacrity, jeered at me in their Tom Waits voices, and gave me the feathery finger when I hammered on the window and told them to go mill grubs or whatever it is they do when unemployed. Then came the starlings, who ate the rest of the seeds, left me vulgar notes, and stole a new rake I had just bought, at startling expense. Then came the squirrels, who appeared to be so upset that there were no seeds left that they used my son’s baseball bat as a battering ram and nearly stove in the garden shed door before the dog, a sort of house wolf, was released to cause havoc and save the gardening implements in their shining ranks, untouched as yet by anyone except the cashier at the store. Then came the slugs and snails, mopping up last shreds, and mammoth raccoons the size of Rick Perry, who used vituperative language and relieved themselves on my gardening gloves, and finally we were visited by two deer, who were so disappointed that we left ten dollars for them in an envelope with a drawing of deer on it.

Things went downhill after that.

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Poetry: “November Idyll”

November 22, 2011, by Orion staff

Below, a spare poem by David Lee, from the November/December 2007 issue of Orion, to leave you with an image for Thanksgiving. And if you are curious about Leviticus 7: 12-15, it is, in fact, instructions for making an offering of thanksgiving to God. The offering “must be eaten on the day it is offered; they must leave none of it till morning.” The great table cloth, shaken. —Hannah Fries, Poetry Editor

November Idyll: After the still life
Leviticus 7:12-15

Above the grain field stubble
a lift of cranes

like a great table cloth
shaken

-David Lee

Read more poetry published in Orion, here.

Kathryn Flagg Visits Sea Change Radio; Sy Montgomery Speaks with Living on Earth

November 16, 2011, by Erik Hoffner

Orion authors are interviewed regularly by fellow media outlets about the features they’ve written for us. Kathryn Flagg, for example, appears on the latest episode of Sea Change Radio, which is heard on over forty radio stations around the U.S. During the first half of the show, she discusses “The Rainmakers,” her article on China’s cloud seeding program in the November/December 2011 issue of the magazine. In other news related to the current issue: watch for Sy Montgomery’s interview with Living on Earth, the weekly environmental news and information program heard on 300 radio stations across the continent, in which she’ll discuss octopus intelligence, animal consciousness, and her piece “Deep Intellect.” Stop by the Living on Earth website for updates.