So Little Time: Words and Images for a World in Climate Crisis

Edited by Vermont poet Greg Delanty, with support from Green Writers Press founder/director, Dede Cummings, with a Foreword from John Elder, an Envoy by Bill McKibben, and poems that feature the work of a multitude of talented nature poets, along with quotes from such environmentalists as McKibben, Wangari Maathai, and others, So Little Time is an interpretive book that will inspire, enrich, and educate, while being an urgent and timely call to action to stop global warming.

Originally it was going to be a book of Delanty’s poetry with images from Vermont photographers. Greg suggested that we invite other living poets and photographers, and subsequently Greg invited many here, and some not within the confines of the state of Vermont. It is worth noting upfront that none of the poets, photographers, and their publishers has charged a fee for reprinting their work, and many of the photographers and poets created new work for this special book.

So Little Time is a revolving door of political activism, spirituality, nature, and humanity. It is a call to action—where urgency meets poetry in no uncertain terms—and asks, “What hour are we in?”

It takes its cue from the grassroots sensibility of Vermont, stripping down decades of unwavering ideals to arrive at an interpretive look at what it means to be ‘Green’ in an evolving world. A work of education and art as invigorating as the poets, teachers, and activists who inspired it, So Little Time addresses what it means to take up action for something as simple as good, healthy, and clean living. It stands on a fundamental set of questions: “What are we looking at?” “What are we seeing?” “What’s really there?” Then asks, “What’s actually there?” So Little Time is more than a coffee table book; rather it is a visual platform, a reflection of a state of mind—clear and focused at the center—that becomes something else around the edges.

The book merges poetry and quotes with stunning black and white photography by such artists as Mariana Cook, the last surviving disciple of Ansel Adams, Steven Brock, Catherine Dianich Gruver, Judith Aronson, Mark Unrau and others.

The book is being printed in Vermont on recycled paper—60-100% post consumer paper using soy-based inks/chlorine free—in a family-run business that is a big supporter of the press.

We have also received word that one of the premier recycled paper companies in the United States—New Leaf Paper—is going to partner with us to help us keep our paper costs down by offering a discount—Their distributor, Lindenmeyr, will also partner with us!

REVIEWS

“A book of eloquent testimony, in poetry and image, to the mystery and beauty immanent in nature, now so desperately imperiled. Like all art, it asks that we look up and see.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Environmentalists long ago won the scientific battle, but we needed to reach people’s hearts as well.  This superb volume will do exactly that.”
—Bill McKibben, bestselling author and environmental activist, founder of 350.org

“This is it, now! A fresh book, plus images, timing, title. The array of good poets shows there’s so little time and this is our time. My own book’s title has a question mark, “Can Poetry Save the Earth?,” and now I sense the answer is Yes!”
—John Felstiner, author of Can Poetry Save the Earth?: A Field Guide to Nature Poems

Greg Delanty was born in Cork, Ireland in 1958, and now lives for most of the year in America, where he teaches at St Michael’s College, Vermont. His Collected Poems 1986-2006 is out from the Oxford Poet’s series of Carcanet Press. Recent books are The Greek Anthology, Book XVII (Carcanet Press and due from LSU Press), Loosestrife (Fomite Press, 2011), The Ship of Birth (Carcanet Press, LSU 2006), The Blind Stitch (Carcanet Press, LSU Press, 2003) and The Hellbox (Oxford University Press 1998). Another recent book which he edited (with Michael Matto) is The Word Exchange, Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, (WW Norton, November, 2010). He has received many awards, most recently a Guggenheim for poetry. His poems are widely anthologized including the recent Penguin Book of Irish Poetry, The Norton Introduction to Poetry, 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every day, and have been broadcast on The Writer’s Almanac. The National Library of Ireland has recently acquired Greg Delanty’s papers up to the end of 2012. He is a US citizen and an Irish Citizen and is the Poet-In-Residence at Saint Michael’s College, Vermont. He is also an environmental activist and works for 350.org. He is Past President of The Association of Literary Scholars, Critics and Writers (ALSCW). He has lived in Vermont since 1986.

Foreword by John Elder
John Elder specializes in American nature writing and pastoral literature, as well as Basho and the Haiku Tradition, contemporary poetry and environmental studies. He has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowship. His most recent books include Reading the Mountains of Home (Harvard University Press, 1998), The Frog Run (Milkweed Editions, 2002).

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Other Contributors:

Photographers:

Judith Aronson
Valerie S. Banschbach
Steven Brock
Annie Tiberio Cameron
Ben Cavanagh
Rossa Cole
Mariana Cook
Johanna Gardner
Brain Geerlings
Catherine Dianich Gruver
Jerry Hiam
Stephen Heron
Peter Hope
Frederick Larson
Neil Louie
Evie Lovett
Declan McCabe
Willow O’Feral
Mark Ostow
Samantha Perrelli
Marjorie Ryerson
Zachary Stephens
Mark Unrau
Elizabeth Ungerleider
John Willis
Lynne Jaeger Weinstein

Poets:

Benjamin Aleshire
Sherman Alexie
Julia Alvarez
David Barber
Sophie Cabot Black
Robert Bly
Antonello Borra
David Budbill
Patty Carpenter
Hayden Carruth
Christine Casson
David Cavanagh
Billy Collins
Wyn Cooper
Ralph Culver
David Curzon
John F. Deane
Chard deNiord
Caitlin Doyle

John Engels
David Ferry
Ross Gay
Eamon Grennan
Seamus Heaney
Ken Hebson
Jane Hirshfield
Gail Holst-Warhaft
Didi Jackson
Major Jackson
George Kalogeris
Galway Kinnell
Leland Kinsey
Maxine Kumin
Adrie Kusserow
Sydney Lea
Lesle Lewis
Buff Lindau
Fred Marchant
Thomas McCarthy
Gary Margolis
Kathryn Maris
Ellen McCulloch-Lovell
Paul McLoughlin
Gerry Murphy
Bernard O’Donoghue
Andrew McNeillie
Mary Oliver
Liam Ó Muirthile
Grace Paley
Jay Parini
Verandah Porche
Adrienne Rich
Maurice Riodan
Marjorie Ryerson
Stephen Sandy
Charles Simic
Tracy K. Smith
William Stafford
Barry Sternlieb
Ruth Stone
Ross Thurber
Daniel Tobin
Rachel Trousdale
Jean Valentine
Ellen Bryant Voigt
Eamonn Wall
Sharon Webster

 

Please note: Percentage of our net sales will go directly to 350vt.org and affiliates.

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SPECS
Pub date: February 11, 2014  |  $30.00 for print and $14.99 for e-Book
Paperback |  224 pages  |  8.5 x 8.5 with over 50 black and white photos  |  978-0-9893104-6-8
eBook  |  978-0-9893104-7-5
Available wherever books are sold. Bookstores can order through Midpoint Trade.