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Where the Grass Still Sings

Stories of Insects and Interconnection

Heather Swan author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Pennsylvania State University Press

Published:21st May '24

Should be back in stock very soon

Where the Grass Still Sings cover

Hopeful strategies of care, resilience, and repair for our fragile planet.

Through narrative, verse, and art, Where the Grass Still Sings celebrates the many tiny creatures that play crucial roles in our ecosystems—as well as the people on the front lines of the fight to save them.

Weaving art and science with inspiring stories of people doing their part to protect insects and the environment, author Heather Swan takes readers around the globe to highlight practical solutions to safeguard our fragile planet. Visit a sustainable coffee farm in Ecuador and a frog expert combating animal trafficking in Colombia. Explore a butterfly sanctuary in an Andean cloud forest and learn about a family of orchid farmers who are replanting a mountainside to attract native pollinators. Meet a bumblebee expert helping Wisconsin cranberry growers, a bark beetle specialist in a new-growth forest in Georgia, an entomologist collecting for the Essig Museum in California, and more. Against a backdrop of climate change, ecological injustice, and impending mass extinction, this book rekindles wonder and hope.

Featuring works by artists deeply invested in preserving the smallest beings among us, Where the Grass Still Sings is a paean to the natural world.

Where the Grass Still Sings exhibits many ways we can give a damn about insect life. It reminds us that all manners of caring matter, can make a difference. In our climate, the familiar environmental call to care more might feel burdensome to those who could reply, ‘I do care.’ Swan’s inventive form, open-hearted tone, and specific focus might help an overwhelmed reader imagine new ways of caring, of developing myriad forms of hope.”

—Grace Butler Terrain


“A glorious call to pay attention to the wonder, mystery, and beauty of the insect world.”

—Dave Goulson, author of Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse

ISBN: 9780271096957

Dimensions: 216mm x 171mm x 12mm

Weight: 318g

184 pages