Short Story

Books, National Parks, Short Story, The Joy Trip Reading Project / 23.05.2023

On Thursday May 18th, 2023, at 5PM Central Time the Joy Trip Reading Project hosted an online discussion with Dave and Ilyssa Kyu, editors of "Campfire Stories Vol. II. Inspired by America’s beloved national parks, Campfire Stories Volume II is a collection of modern prose, poetry, and folklore, featuring commissioned, new, and existing works from a diverse group of writers who share a deep appreciation of the natural world. While the original Campfire Stories captured many historic tales reflecting the first 100 years of the National Park Service,...

Environmental Studies, Essays, Short Story / 06.07.2018

Most mornings I started my run about an hour before the ferry arrived from the mainland. The game wardens and lab technicians undoubtedly thought I was a bit odd. Who in his right mind would run in the jungle heat for exercise? Of all the professors, grad students, and undergraduates like me conducting research on Barro Colorado Island I was the only runner. To the Panamanians I was simply “El Negro Gringo Loco”. I arrived in Panama a few weeks earlier. I quickly came to appreciate the Latin propensity...

Alaska, National Parks, New Century Vision, Short Story, Sierra Club, We are the Arctic / 04.07.2016

There on the Arctic tundra I searched my tent frantically for a lighter. Years of wilderness training had taught me the importance of fire, but never before had the need been greater than it was at that moment. Even as the glacial ice melted around me in the heat of an Alaskan summer I shivered in desperate need to turn spark to flame and provide the relief these dire circumstances demanded. Just the day before I had mused without irony how seldom, if ever, I had lit a fire...