Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California is a new anthology co-edited by Ruth Nolan and Lucille Lang Day. Nolan grew up in the Mojave Desert and now lives in Palm Desert, where she is professor of English and creative writing at College of the Desert. Lang Day, founder and director of Scarlet Tanager Books, is the award-winning author of 10 poetry collections, two children’s books, and a memoir.
Can you talk a bit about the genesis of Fire and Rain? There are already quite a few poetry anthologies out there with an environmental focus. What makes yours necessary?
Nolan: Fire and Rain speaks in a wide range of poetic sensibilities that both distinguish and synthesize the many diverse ecologies of California. Our anthology offers an eco-tone of voices, in the form of poetry that emanates from and across every ridge and valley, desert and water-body, rare micro-zone and sweeping vistas and urban ecologies of our Golden State.