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Book Cover for: Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves, J. Drew Lanham

Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves

J. Drew Lanham

From J. Drew Lanham, MacArthur "Genius" Grant recipient and author of Sparrow Envy: A Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, comes a sensuous new collection in his signature mix of poetry and prose.


In gorgeous and timely pieces, Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves is a lush journey into wildness and Black being. Lanham notices nature through seasonal shifts, societal unrest, and deeply personal reflection and traces a path from bitter history to the present predicament. Drawing canny connections between the precarity of nature and the long arm of racism, the collection offers reconciliation and eco-reparation as hopeful destinations from our current climate of division. In Joy is the Justice We Give Ourselves, Lanham mines the deep connection to ancestors through the living world and tunes his unique voice toward embracing the radical act of joy.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Hub City Press
  • Publish Date: Apr 2nd, 2024
  • Pages: 112
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.11in - 5.04in - 0.63in - 0.50lb
  • EAN: 9798885740302
  • Categories: American - African American & BlackSubjects & Themes - Animals & NatureAmerican - General

About the Author

Lanham, J. Drew: -

J. Drew Lanham is the author of Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts and The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature. He has received a MacArthur "Genius" Grant as well as the Dan W. Lufkin Conservation Award (National Audubon Society), the Rosa Parks and Grace Lee Boggs Outstanding Service Award (North American Association for Environmental Education), and the E. O. Wilson Award for Outstanding Science in Biodiversity Conservation (Center for Biological Diversity). He served as the Poet Laureate of Edgefield, South Carolina in 2022. He is a bird watcher, poet, and Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University. He lives in Seneca, South Carolina.

More books by J. Drew Lanham

Book Cover for: The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature, J. Drew Lanham
Book Cover for: Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, J. Drew Lanham

Praise for this book

"With his consistently engaging writing, keen eye, and generosity of spirit, Lanham is a writer to whom we should all listen closely. Lanham memorably, vibrantly shows how choosing joy is an act of resilience, courage, and power." --Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review