The author of Green the Witch Hazel Wood describes her travels to the Orkneys, Belize, the Everglades, and the Greek Islands, sharing her observations on the human history of the regions and the diverse landscapes of the world. Read more Continue reading Read less FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The exquisite prose and erudition displayed in these essays by National Poetry Series Award-winning poet Hiestand ( Green with Witch Hazel Wood ) may awe some readers as she brilliantly portrays four very different, far-flung localities. Their geology, history, and people are animated by an artist's vision, a naturalist's curiosity and an intellectual disposition. Accompanied for most of her travels by another "middle-aged bookish woman," Hiestand explores the former Mayan stronghold of Belize--an environmentalist's unspoiled paradise inhabited by a rich mixture of people who have descended mainly from slaves of the colonial past. The fog-shrouded, windswept, rainy Orkneys, with their monolithic cairns and circles assembled by Neolithic humans, offer a stark contrast to the idyllic, sunbathed islands of Greece "saturated with myth." The reader will long remember Hiestand's chilling and masterful account of her meeting with a "primal" Everglades alligator.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. FROM LIBRARY JOURNAL
Hiestand won the 1990 Whiting Writer's Award and received a National Poetry Series award for Green the Witch Hazel Wood (Graywolf Pr., 1989) . Her book is more than a collection of travel essays. For the armchair traveler, she opens a window into new cultures and people. She brings a keen intellect and intuitive insight into human nature, and her prose is both evocative and lyrical. From the swamps of the Everglades to the windswept Orkneys, she breathes life into both the countrysides she visits and the people she meets. And in these times of increased environmental awareness, her narrative serves as a painless but effective reminder that the earth is alive and that we are not just inhabitants but stewards. With its natural synthesis of poetry and prose with nature and culture, this volume provides a literary treat for the mind. Recommended for most travel collections.
- Jane Gilliland, Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. REVIEW
Hiestand won the 1990 Whiting Writers Award and received a National Poetry Series award for Green the Witch Hazel Wood (Graywolf Pr., 1989) . Her book is more than a collection of travel essays. For the armchair traveler, she opens a window into new cultures and people. She brings a keen intellect and intuitive insight into human nature, and her prose is both evocative and lyrical. From the swamps of the Everglades to the windswept Orkneys, she breathes life into the people she meets. And in these times of increased environmental awareness, her narrative serves as a painless but effective reminder that the earth is alive and that we are not just inhabitants but stewards. With its natural synthesis of poetry and prose with nature and culture, this volume provides a literary treat for the mind. Recommended for most travel collections. -- Library Journal, Jane Gillilard, Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh
The exquisite prose and erudition displayed in these essays by National Poetry Series Award-winning poet Hiestand (Green the Witch-Hazel Wood) may awe some readers as she brilliantly portrays four very different, far-flung localities. Their geology, history, and people are animated by an artist's vision, a naturalist's curiosity and an intellectual disposition. Accompanied for most of her travels by another "middle-aged bookish woman," Hiestand explores the former Mayan stronghold of Belize--an environmentalist's unspoiled paradise inhabited by a rich mixture of people who have descended mainly from slaves of the colonial past. The fog-shrouded, windswept, rainy Orkneys, with their monolithic cairns and circles offer a stark contrast to the idyllic, sunbathed islands of Greece "saturated with myth." The reader will long remember Hiestand's chilling and masterful account of her meeting with a "primal" Everglades alligator. -- Publishers Weekly
