Enchanting. . . . The Poetic Species is a wonderful read in its entirety, short yet infinitely simulating.
The Poetic Species
A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass
In this shimmering conversation (the outgrowth of an event co-sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and Poets House), Edward O. Wilson, renowned scientist and proponent of “consilience”—or the unity of knowledge—finds an ardent interlocutor in Robert Hass, whose credo as United States poet laureate was “imagination makes communities.” As they explore the many ways that poetry and science enhance each other, they travel from anthills to ancient Egypt and to the heights and depths of human potential. A testament to how science and the arts can join forces to educate and inspire, this book is also a passionate plea for conservation of all the planet’s species.
World Literature Today Editor’s Pick
Hardcover
- ISBN
- 9781934137727
Ebook
- ISBN
- 9781934137734
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Edward O. Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Social Conquest of Earth and Anthill: A Novel, as well as the Pulitzer Prize–winning On Human Nature and (with Bert Hölldobler) The Ants. For his contributions in science and conservation, he received more than 100 awards from around the world.
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Robert Hass has served as United States Poet Laureate and as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. He has published many books of poetry, including Time and Materials,winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and What Light Can Do: Essays on Art, Imagination, and the Natural World,winner of the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award. Awarded the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the National Book Critics Circle Award (twice), and the Yale Younger Poets Prize, Hass is co-founder of River of Words, an environmental education program for children, and a professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley.
visit author page »Praise for The Poetic Species
The principle of consilience, or the unity of knowledge, infuses this conversation between biologist E. O. Wilson and poet Robert Hass. . . . The eminent duo explore echoes and parallels in their respective fields with eloquent concision, from Wilson’s advice to poets (“Colonize science) to Hass’s musings on the interplay of selfish gene and social imperative in imagination.”
— Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science
The Poetic Species explores the intersection of science and the arts in relation to the staggering environmental crisis the world is encountering. I am encouraged by this call to action by both scientific and literary communities and curious about the possible responses.