Soil

A ΓÇ£heartfelt and thoroughly enrichingΓÇ¥ (Aimee Nezhukumatathil,New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders) work that expands on how we talk about the natural world and the environment as National Book Critics Circle finalist Camille T. Dungy diversifies her garden to reflect her heritage. In Soil: The Story of a Black MotherΓÇÖs Garden poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort CollinsColorado. When she moved there in 2013with her husband and daughterthe community held strict restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens. In resistance to the homogenous policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earthDungy employs the various plantsherbsvegetablesand flowers she grows in her garden as metaphor and treatise for how homogeneity threatens the future of our planetand why cultivating diverse and intersectional language in our national discourse about the environment is the best means of protecting it. ΓÇ£Brilliant and beautifulΓÇ¥ (Ross GayNew York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights)Soil functions as the nexus of nature writingenvironmental justiceand prose to encourage you to recognize the relationship between the people of the African diaspora and the land on which they liveand to understand that wherever soil rests beneath their feet is home.