To the untrained eye, a desert is a wasteland that defies civilization; yet the desert has been home to native cultures for centuries and offers sustenance in its surprisingly wide range of plant life.Gary Paul Nabhan has combed the desert in search of plants forgotten by all but a handful of American Indians and Mexican Americans. In Gathering the Desert readers will discover that the bounty of the desert is much more than meets the eye—whether found in the luscious fruit of the stately organpipe cactus or in the lowly tepary bean. Nabhan has chosen a dozen of the more than 425 edible wild species found in the Sonoran Desert to demonstrate just how bountiful the land can be. From the red-hot chiltepines of Mexico to the palms of Palm Springs, each plant exemplifies a symbolic or ecological relationship which people of this region have had with plants through history. Each chapter focuses on a particular plant and is accompanied by an original drawing by artist Paul Mirocha. Word and picture together create a total impression of plants and people as the book traces the turn of seasons in the desert.

Gathering the Desert

Gary Paul Nabhan

Paul Mirocha

Literature & Fiction

University of Arizona Press

Spanning Texas to Florida, the Gulf Coast is one of America’s most distinct regions. This book, comprised of poems, essays, journal entries, and information on the area’s natural features, reveals the region’s remarkable richness. With stops in such uniquely southern locales as Texas’s Neches River Bottom, Mississippi’s Pascagoula, and Louisiana’s Bayou Dorcheat, the book introduces dynamic past and present inhabitants of the area, including Choctaw Indians, fur traders, cotton farmers, and city kids. Readers also encounter wild creatures such as rattlesnakes, alligators, mosquitoes, panthers, manatees, and whooping cranes. Literary selections by Zora Neale Hurston, Barry Hannah, E. O. Wilson, Joseph Bruchac, John James Audubon, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and other writers with ties to the Gulf Coast pay tribute to the region’s strong storytelling tradition. Maps and 30 black-and-white illustrations are included.

Stories from Where We Live: The Gulf Coast (Stories from Where We Live)

Children's Books

Trudy Nicholson

Katrinka Moore

MILKWEED EDITIONS *

The Forgotten Pollinators

Stephen L. Buchmann

Island Press

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Books by Paul Mirocha