Space exhaled a puff of air. Caught in its stream pathless terrene thought it well to cleave a fresh path form a new road unzip the miles-thin protective layer. Aeriform meteoric hand punched through. Glass jugs exploded in a cosmic grand plie windows shattered crystalline light show creation’s crumble celestial chaff in its random wind. [...]
Through tangles of blackberry canes gallops a regal creature of the timber: Odocoileus virginianus, or the white-tailed deer. This one is a buck with cracked antlers, his coat birch brown. He sniffs the air before crossing the man-made paths. This veteran has survived so many hunting seasons because of his respect for orange vests and [...]
I received my annual notice that the Ellen Meloy Grant for Desert Writers is seeking applicants. The deadline for grant applications is January 15. The grant funds only desert-themed, literary creative nonfiction. No fiction, children’s literature, or poetry will be considered. To read the details, click here.You might want to take a look at past [...]
Wilderness Interface Zone would like to thank participants who put their hearts in our Love of Nature Nature of Love Month. The list includes: Elizabeth Pinborough Kathryn Knight Gail White Ashley Suzanne Musick Sarah Dunster Chanel Earl Sarah Dunster Mark Penny Laura Craner Gerard Manley Hopkins Jonathon Penny You all helped WIZ celebrate love and [...]
As we walk—side by side—down the long sloping trail, we pass gray trees and black igneous boulders peppering the otherwise white, sedimentary landscape. The earth is a mirror reflecting the hot yellow sun that has so recently removed winter’s snow. I point out traces of vanished streams; you find lizard footprints delicately decorating their sandy [...]
Frequent WIZ contributor Karen Kelsay’s new book of poetry, Lavender Song, is out and available for sale here.  Karen’s formalist poetry is a well-kept garden of lovely sensibilities. For samples of her work published on WIZ, go here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Writers: The deadline for Torrey House Press’s creative non-fiction contest [...]
While WIZ loves poetry and heartily encourages poets to continue sending their nature-romancing verse, it’s perhaps time to follow nature’s own example of protean morphologies and bring more rhetorical diversity to the site. Hence, WIZ is issuing a call for short, creative non-fiction and fiction pieces.  If you have a nature-oriented essay or field notes [...]
Like most folks, my husband, kids, and I greet spring’s arrival with relief. The relaxing of winter’s grip, the first crack of color between sepals clutching flower buds, the sun’s liberating warmth all lighten the load my family balances gingerly as we carry it through winter’s dimly-lit cellars. But as daylight’s gold, pink or orange [...]
Coming soon to a mailbox (or computer) near you: Dialogue’s environmental issue. Several Wilderness Interface Zone contributors are included therein–congratulations, friends! Frequent WIZ contributor Steven Peck guest edited this issue. Table of contents: Page    Author    Title Mary Toscano    Front Cover Inside Cover, Title Page v    Edwin Firmage, Jr.    Letters 1 [...]
Every year an old friend and I undertake an adventure. H. and I are middle-aged now. Past our prime and youth when our adventures were bolder and more carefree. I can remember when we then, full of laughter, took his new pickup and rubbed its shiny sides against aspens for luck while searching out some [...]