Today is one of those almost spring-like days. It’s as close as we get to Halcyon Days here on the Northern Plains. The still, slightly warmer weather, has complemented my reading of  Taylor Brorby and Stefanie Trout new edited volume Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories of Fracking in America (2016) from Ice Cube Press. Some of the contributors to the Fracture volume will be coming to North Dakota in a couple weeks. I also got to thinking about John P. Bluemle’s North Dakota’s Geologic Legacy: Our Land and How It Formed (2016) from NDSU Press. Both these books elegantly engage nature and offer a seductive preview to spring as we enjoy temperature in the 30s and puddles of melted snow.

Do go and check out the Spring 1991 volume of North Dakota Quarterly which features a double issue full of nature writers dedicated to the memory of Edward Abbey.