Praise for Hearth

“A simmering collection of 32 provocative and stunning works . . . Ultimately, this profound and radiant volume reveals that hearths take many forms, including a book.”—Booklist

“[A] remarkable new collection . . . ‘We live within a blaze of transience both inevitable and complete,’ writes Jane Hirshfield. Hearth captures both the evanescence of that blaze and its enduring power to heal us.”—World Literature Today

“Astounding, gorgeous . . . From front cover to back, Hearth is a visually and intellectually stimulating collection, always beautiful, but equal parts uplifting and heartbreaking.”—Missoulian

“A wide-ranging anthology devoted to the idea and symbol of the hearth, a traditional centerpiece of the home, the collection avoids nostalgia and deals squarely with how community and place can be approached and enacted in a world torn by immigration crises, climate change, and inequality.”—Stephen Sparks, Literary Hub

“Here is a book for our real or imagined hearths, prompting us to discover and redefine them. . . . Hearth serves as a guide and a tribute to our collective struggles and the many possibilities of home.”—Arkansas International

“Thought-provoking, meditative, mournful, and comforting for readers who seek a connection to purpose and meaning, the anthology acts as a hearth of its own.”—Publishers Weekly

“The wisdom, compassion, and humanity in these pages are powerful medicine for our time. It’s not necessary to begin at the beginning, but I did. I started with W. S. Merwin’s beautiful poem and the rest of the essays seeped in where Merwin made his skillful soul-opening into my heart. By the time I put this gorgeous collection of writing down, I was flooded with both the balm of compassion and instructions for how to go forward, both.” —Alexandra Fuller, author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight

“Some of my favorite people on Earth are in this book, dear writers and grand spirits at whose hearths I long to sit. And there are writers who are new to me, fascinating people whose lives vivify how very much about human existence still remains to be learned.”—Annie Dillard

“The first hearth, I suppose, before humans controlled fire, was the body heat of a she-wolf or a bear, curled in her den, offering nurture to shivering pups or cubs. These fine writers take it from there. Wolves don’t need fire, as Barry notes. But they and we all need something like it—a focus, a refuge, a source.”—David Quammen

Annick Smith is the author of several books, including Homestead, In This We Are Native, Big Bluestem, and most recently Crossing the Plains with Bruno. She produced the prize-winning feature Heartland, and was a founding board member of Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. Her travel and nature writing, short stories, and essays have appeared in journals such as Audubon, Outside, Islands, Travel + Leisure, Orion, the New York Times, Story, and National Geographic Traveler and have been widely anthologized. She was also the editor of Headwaters: Montana Writers on Water & Wilderness, and coeditor with Susan O’Connor of The Wide Open: Prose, Poetry, and Photographs of the Prairie. She lives in Bonner, Montana. Susan O’Connor is an environmental and arts advocate. She has served on the boards of several art museums, including the Menil in Houston, Texas. She has also been a board member of the Orion Society and the American Prairie Reserve. She cofounded several nonprofits, including Pacific Writers Connection, Ala Kukui: Hana Retreat, Ohana Makamae, and Families First both in Boston and Missoula. She was coeditor with Annick Smith of The Wide Open: Prose, Poetry, and Photographs of the Prairie. She lives in Missoula, Montana.

Contents

W. S. Merwin, Rain Light
Annick Smith and Susan O'Connor, Preface: Keeping the Fire Alive
Barry Lopez, Foreword: The Unhearthed

HEART

Natasha Trethewey, Meditation at Decatur Square
Bill McKibben, Heaarth
Luis Alberto Urrea, Codex Hogar
Andrew Lam, Enchantment
Yvonne Owuor, The Fire in Ten
Chigozie Obioma, We Will Wait for You
Pico Iyer, My Mobile Home
Gerður Kristný, Völuspá
Alisa Ganieva, Hearth’s in the Highlands
Zoë Strachan, Small Fires
Jane Hirshfield, The Fire

EARTH

Pualani Kanahele, Kilauea Caldera, My Hearth
Sara Baume, Home Waters
Carl Safina, Soul on the Tide
Sherman Alexie, Ode
Gretel Ehrlich, To Live
Intizar Husain, New Home
Kim Cheng Boey, Home Is Elsewhere: Reflections of a Returnee
Kavery Nambisan, The Rent Not Paid
Frank Stewart, What It Will Bear
Terry Tempest Williams and Sarah Hedden, A Tea Ceremony for Public Lands
Ameena Hussein, A Staircase with a View

ART

Sebastião Salgado, from Genesis (portfolio)
Anthony Birch, Colours
Christopher Merrill, Hearth
Mihaela Moscaliuc, The Ink of Cemeteries
Debra Magpie Earling, The Great Big Rickety World My Father Saved Me From
Geffrey Davis, Even in the Loneliness of the Canyon
Angie Cruz, Dream Shelter
William Kittredge, Refuge
Mark Tredinnick, The Temple of the Word
Mary Evelyn Tucker, From Home to Cosmos
W. S. Merwin, The Other House