In a December 25th story on Outside Online by Los Angeles writer Shawnté Salabert, Outside Magazine named Jordan Fisher Smith’s Engineering Eden as one of ten books that shaped the outdoor world in the last decade. Among others named were Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction, Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs Climate, and David James Haskell’s The Forest Unseen. At least one book editor had two books in the list, Crown Publishing’s Kevin Doughten, who edited Haskell and Smith’s books.
“Here are ten books from the past ten years that sparked debate, changed discourse, and spawned movements in the outdoor world. These stories made us marvel at the seemingly impossible limits of the human body and feel enthralled with the wonders of nature. They mobilized us to stand up against environmental injustice, taught us about climate change, and inspired us to take our ideas out into the world,” wrote Salabert. (read the full article)
The Experiment Publishing, a boutique publisher of nonfiction distributed by Workman, will publish a new paperback edition of Engineering Eden. Expected publication date is February 2019.
May 8, 2017: The Commonwealth Club of California has awarded Jordan Fisher Smith’s Engineering Eden the Silver Medal for nonfiction in the 2017 California Book Awards. The Commonwealth Club is the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum, bringing over 400 annual events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy to more than 20,000 members. The club’s California Book Awards strive to annually recognize the state’s best writers and illuminate the wealth and diversity of California-based literature.
In December 2016, Engineering Eden was nominated and longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award, which celebrates writing that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of physical and biological sciences.
Should We Control Nature to Make It Nicer? Death by grizzly, a trial, and the fight over controlling nature
At dawn on Sunday, September 18th, a blanket of clouds hung over the tawny grass mountainsides around Missoula, Montana. The cottonwoods had begun to turn yellow. On the south edge of town, in the home that the retired wildlife biologist John Craighead had occupied with his wife, Margaret, for six decades, the couple’s daughter, Karen, had been sleeping only intermittently…
“I think the questions I’ve raised in this book have never been conclusively answered. Nor should they be. They are more useful as questions we should always ask ourselves when we undertake these kinds of interventions.”