Confessions of a Failed Energy Martyr
by Raymond Welch

Currents, Guest Editorial, Issue 33
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Guest Editorial by Raymond Welch Somewhere along the ramifying pathways of the possible, I became an energy consultant. I’m not sure how that happened. Part of me thinks it’s because life proceeds haphazardly. Another part of me thinks it’s because I’m passive, irresolute, cowardly, and amoral. Now I analyze utility tariffs, natural gas prices, carbon emissions, and all the other glyphs and runes by which the hidden world of energy communicates with we who scuttle on its filmy surface. There is no refuge from my secret here.

Women and Nature,
the Engine that Drives the World

Issue 33, Reviews + Reads
Rosalie Morales Kearns Reviews Women Who Sleep with Animals, Stories by Lisa Norris It’s easy, at first, to forget this miraculous quality of animals as one moves forward in the collection, as subsequent stories feature animals killed in accidents or for the sake of scientific research. The human characters’ varied reactions to these deaths are skillfully woven into stories involving more familiar human dilemmas like rejection, illness, and disappointment.

My Time on the Turning World

Issue 33, Reviews + Reads
Melanie Dylan Fox Reviews Horizon’s Lens: My Time on the Turning World, Essays by Elizabeth Dodd One of Dodd’s greatest strengths is that although she has integrated diverse material—sometimes from seemingly disparate sources—the material is interconnected, speaking satisfyingly to her larger thematic focus. This collection is structurally impressive in its cohesiveness within the parts and for the whole.

A Kind of Ritual

Issue 33, Reviews + Reads
David Bernardy Reviews The Names of Things, a Novel by John Colman Woods Set against the backdrop of a nomadic tribal community in eastern Africa, John Colman Wood’s quietly affecting debut novel, The Names of Things, explores the intricacies  between love and grief and the intersections of nature and culture.