The University of Arizona The University of Arizona Press

Skip to content
  • Books
  • News
  • Events
  • About
  • Open Arizona
Shoppoing Cart Cart

Tucson Weekly Features Excerpt from ‘The Nature of Desert Nature’

February 23, 2021

The Tucson Weekly gave a bit of love to The Nature of Desert Nature, edited by Gary Paul Nabhan.

The book is a collection of essays that celebrate the bounty and the significance of desert places, including an extended essay by Nabhan. The celebrated author and ethnobiologist brought friends, colleagues, and advisors together from his more than four decades of study of deserts—to bring their own perspectives. Scientists, artists, desert contemplatives, poets, and writers bring the desert into view and investigate why these places compel us to walk through their sands and beneath their cacti and acacia.

Thank you, Jim Nintzel, Weekly editor, for the kind words and sharing a bit of Nabhan’s desert love.

Here’s some of the excerpt shared from Nabhan’s essay:

The horizon was dull edged and hazy from a recent sandstorm. Nevertheless, the sun beamed down on me with what seemed to be a preternatural force.

I stood there alone (I believed), silent enough to hear my own heart beating and the breeze brushing at my sleeves. I could not immediately figure out the patterns of the place—the relationships among weather, substrate, flora, fauna and human influence.

A dust devil, or chachipira, suddenly swept by me and then disappeared into thin air, leaving bushes rustling and empty beer cans rolling around in eddies.

Then my eyes began to tear up in brightness, and I wiped them clean with a sweep of my shirtsleeve. Instantly, I was looking at this world as if I had come to another planet for the very first time.

More News

For Authors

The University of Arizona Press publishes the work of leading scholars from around the globe. Learn more about submitting a proposal, preparing your final manuscript, and publication.

Inquire

Requests

The University of Arizona Press is proud to share our books with readers, booksellers, media, librarians, scholars, and instructors. Join our email Newsletter. Request reprint licenses, information on subsidiary rights and translations, accessibility files, review copies, and desk and exam copies.

Request

Support the Press

Support a premier publisher of academic, regional, and literary works. We are committed to sharing past, present, and future works that reflect the special strengths of the University of Arizona and support its land-grant mission.

Give
The University of Arizona Press

The University of Arizona Press
1510 E. University Blvd.
P.O. Box 210055
Tucson, AZ 85721-0055

Our offices are located on the fifth floor of the Main Library building, to your right as you exit the elevators.

Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, Monday through Friday. (Arizona does not observe daylight saving time.)

Orders: (800) 621-2736 (phone)
Office: (520) 621-1441

  • About
  • Books
  • Contact
  • Events
  • News
  • Catalogs
  • Open Arizona
  • Authors
  • Booksellers
  • Educators
  • Librarians
  • Media
Privacy | University Privacy Statement
Follow Us FacebookIcon TwitterIcon
© 2023 The University of Arizona Press
  • About
  • Books
  • Contact
  • Events
  • News
  • Catalogs
  • Open Arizona
  • Authors
  • Booksellers
  • Educators
  • Librarians
  • Media