Held: Essays in Aftermaths

From award-winning author Kathryn Nuernberger, Held is a collection of essays about mutualisms, mutual aid, and ways of being together in a time of climate crisis.

Here is a collection about living in and with the consequences of terrible mistakes--Held contemplates our collective experiences of loss in an age of climate change and mass extinctions, as well as more personal tragedies. Each essay in this book describes a remarkable instance of symbiotic mutualism: bobtail squid host glow-in-the-dark bacteria behind their eyes so they can camouflage with moonlight on the water; there is a surprisingly erotic encounter between ants and a rove beetle; beavers and willow trees together turn deserts to verdant wetlands; and many more. To read Held is to be reminded of one’s humanity and of our interconnectedness with the world that surrounds us.

Kathryn Nuernberger is the author of the poetry collections, RUE, The End of Pink, and >Rag & Bone. She has also written the essay collections The Witch of Eye and Brief Interviews with the Romantic Past. Her awards include the James Laughlin Prize from the Academy of American Poets, an NEA fellowship, and ＂notable＂ essays in the Best American series. Her co-authored textbook with Maya Jewell Zeller is Advanced Poetry: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology. She teaches in the MFA program at University of Minnesota.