Texas Pages

Southwestern Nature Writing Series
UNT Press

Introduction:
The Southwestern states’ boundaries (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona) create a unique situation of having large areas of varying landscape as well as ethnically and culturally diverse populations on each side of the 100th meridian, geographically considered the dividing line between eastern and western United States.
Not surprisingly, Southwestern nature writing is often lumped into either southeastern regionalist writing or the iconoclastic, visionary writing that typifies western American wilderness perspectives. What is needed is a nature writing series that recognizes the bioregional and cultural ecotone that best defines this transitional area. Ecologically, an ecotone is the transition area between two clearly defined habitats; however, because it possesses attributes of both defined habitats it tends to be biologically rich allowing species from each habitat to come into contact and serving as home to other species which can only survive in these transitional areas. The Southwestern Nature Writing Series will reflect this middle-ground quality by soliciting and publishing Southwestern nature writing from multiple ethnic perspectives and acknowledging the complexity of this natural heritage.

Scope of this Series:
The Southwestern Nature Writing Series will address an often neglected space in Southwestern letters since 1960. It will encourage nature writers to imbue their quality natural history observations with a strong narrative that reflects the ethnic, cultural, and regional ecotone that makes up this vast region. The series has a unique opportunity to use the border between east and west as a means to solidify a scope that has identifiable boundaries but will encourage authors to delve deeply into their local bioregion while also examining the complexities of diversity. In this way, the series will work with authors to go past traditional divisions of east/west and look more carefully at the blending and division that takes place along any natural, cultural, and ethnic boundaries. The series will specifically identify and encourage ethnic diversity among its authors as diversity has been a weakness in not only Southwestern nature writing but American nature writing generally. Terrell Dixon, a leading figure in nature writing and ecocriticism has pointed out that American nature writing generally and Texas nature writing specifically has lacked ethnic diversity.
The kind of book the series will welcome would be in the tradition and of the quality of John Graves’ Goodbye to a River; however, such a manuscript would also reflect a more modern sensibility and awareness of the environmental issues facing the region as well as considering questions of environmental justice, ecological restoration, and sustainable communities.

Submissions:

Please send a query letter prior to manuscript submission to:

David Taylor
Series Editor
Department of English
PO Box 311307
University of North Texas
Denton, TX 76203-1307