This library contains many excerpts of green reads–stories that speak from our place in the natural world. The Dragonfly Library welcome submissions of all kinds–nonfiction, fiction, poetry & prose, graphic novel, and short story excerpts. You may also submit nonfiction nature writing in the forms of articles and essays. See Dragonfly Library’s submission guidelines.

Newest additions: South African poetry (Luvuyo Mkangelwa) and selections from Michael McClure’s Touching the Edge: Dharma Devotions from the Hummingbird Sangha. These are republished from Jack Magazine (2000-2010), which I founded; thanks also to acquisitions editor Michael Rothenberg. Some of Jack’s earlier issues are archived at Stanford University.

Note that Michael McClure recently passed away. I was recently talking with Michael Rothenberg (one of McClure’s friends) about how we first learned about the poet. Rothenberg said that he was turned on to ecology by McClure at age 17; I also began to recognize, as a teenager when I got into Jack Kerouac, the strong ecological themes in the novel The Dharma Bums, which was based upon real events, with McClure being one of the characters. I later got to see McClure at LA’s Whiskey A-Go-Go, the first time any of the Doors returned to the club after having been kicked out since they played “The End” there. McClure jammed with Ray Manzarek on spoken word poetry. McClure also sent me a signed copy of his book “Specks” when I lived in southern California, which I appreciated.

Note: We’re now adding excerpts from other places. These entries have an external link icon next to them.

Authors and Titles

• Aithal – The Galaxy Series
• Arthur, Virginia – Treed
• Aslan, Austin – Islands at the End of the World
• Atcheson, John – How Close to Savage the Soul
• Bailey, Richard R. – Stormy
• Barrett, C.M. – The Dragon Who Didn’t Fly
• Blackwell, Mat – Beef
• Blackwood, Algernon – The Willows
• Brandes, Kate – The Promise of Pierson Orchard
• Brunner, Kym – Flip the Bird
• Burt, Brian – In the Tears of God, Blood Tide
• Cameron, D.M. – Beneath the Mother Tree
• Cerqueira, João – Jesus and Magdalene
• Chauvel, Armand – The Green and the Red
• Chadha, Olivia – Balance of Fragile Things
• Clinton, Jack – Clovis
• Coleman, Peagum – In Search of Staria
• Collins, Paul – The Apology
• Cowley, Kell – Shrinking Sinking Land
• Datnow, Claire – The Adventures of the Sizzling Six
• D’Avanzo, Charlene – Cold Blood, Hot Sea
• Dreese, Donelle – Cave Walker
• Driver, D.G. – Whisper of the Woods, Cry of the Sea
• Dunn, Cate – Gentle
• Groenendijk, Jessica – Something Special
• Fiore, Carol – Countdown
• Follansbee, J.G. – Carbon Run
• Fraterrigo, Melissa – Glory Days
• Gadd, Jeremy – The Suicide Season
• Green, Gila – No Entry
• Greene, Randal Eldon – Descriptions of Heaven
• Habila, Helon – Oil on Water
• Hibbard, Tom – The Sacred River of Consciousness, Schizpo Code Zero: The Economics of Ambiguity and Creation of Value part 1 and part 2, Invisible Wings, Coronavirus 2020 Poems
• Holmes, Marc Taro – The Apocalypse Variations: Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days
• Hoover, Erin – Barnburner
• Houk, Emily et al. – Reckoning: Journal of Environmental Justice Fiction
• Hoyle, Trevor – The Last Gasp
• Hume, Clara – The Midnight Moon, Back to the Garden, Lost Ages
• Hyde, Jonni – Irrevocable Acts
• Knightley, H.D. – Belief
• James, Kelvin Christopher – Augments of Change
• Judge, Gordon – Dubito, Ergo Sum
• Kingsolver, Barbara – Prodigal Summer
• Kraus, James – The Forester
• Kroes, Ken – 2022
• Lenning, K.E. – The Melt Trilogy
• Ligget, William – Watermelon Snow
• Lord, Nancy – pH, a Novel
• Lowe, Stephen – Chimbo Sok
• May, Rachel – The Audit
• Mays, Anthony – Halfway to the Truth
• Masover, Steve – Consequence
• McClure, Michael – Touching the Edge: Dharma Devotions from the Hummingbird Sangha
• McGee, Chris – Mr. Green Jeans
• Melchiore, Ron – Off Grid and Free: My Path to the Wilderness: Which Way Do I Go?, Wandering for 165 Days and Nights
• Mellor, Belinda – Silvana: The Greening
• Melville, Herman – Moby Dick
• Mercer, George: Dyed in the Green series: Wood Buffalo
• Milton, John – Paradise Lost
• Mkangelwa, Luvuyo – Poems
• Morin, J.L. – Nature’s Confession
• Morrison, Duncan – Hope or High Water
• Muir, John – Our National Parks
• Mulvenna, Donna – All Things Breathe Alike, The Silence Spreading Across the Natural World, Wild Roots: Coming Alive in the Natural World
• Naresh, Mehek – Left Behind
• Ogden, Don – Bad Atmosphere: A Collection of Poetry & Prose on the Climate Crisis
• Newton, J.L. – Oink: A Food for Thought Mystery
• Popielaski, John – The Hollow Middle
• Pratt, Annis – The Road to Beaver Mill, Fly Out of Darkness, The Marshlanders
• Prescott, Bev – 2 Degrees
• Prideaux, Margi – Beautiful Giant
• Raymond, Midge – My Last Continent
• Robinson, Lorin R. – Tales from the Warming
• Rohini Bisgaard, Tanja  2047: Short Stories from Our Common Future
  
• Rommel, Keith – Ice Canyon Monster
• Ryan, Jean – Survival Skills
• Sampler, Patrik – The Ocean Container
• Schaefer, James A. – Two Houses of Oikos
• Slaven, Marissa – Code Blue
• Spitzer, Mark – Garapaima
• Sinclair, Upton – The Jungle
• Sparks, Cat – Lotus Blue
• Tavormina, Patricia – Aerovoyant: The Industrial Age, Volume One
• Tepperman, Jean – Warning from My Future Self
• Thorpe, David – Stormteller, Weatherfronts
• Tillman, Ned – Saving the Places We Love
• VanderMeer, Jeff – Annihilation
• Verant, M – Power in the Age of Lies: A Political Thriller
• Walker, Lisa – Melt
• Welch, Carolyn – California Poems
• Woodbury, Mary – The Little Big Town
• Wright, Anthony – Pimp the Cosmos
• Wristen Colbert – Jaimee – Wild Things, Vanishing Acts
• Yunker, John – The Tourist Trail
• Zachary, Eichholz – The End of the Beginning
• Zetland, David et al. – Life Plus 2 Meters, Volume 1 and Life Plus 2 Meters, Volume 2 with John Sayer, Emma J. Myatt
• Zornado, J. – Gods of the Little Earth, The Power at the Bottom of the Earth, When Immortals Reign