Isotope – Spring/Summer 2005

isotope, a journal of literary nature and science writing, published by Utah State University, boasts an impressive selection of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, in addition to a striking, full color portfolio of artwork by Richard Gate. This issue includes the winners of the first annual Editors’ Prizes: “Consumption,” a remarkable essay by Sunshine O’Donnell, and a suite of poems by Thomas Joswick that examine the life and art of John James Audubon. My favorite of Joswick’s poems is “Audubon Anticipates Dawn and Blood”: “Before sunrise, from scratching grounds, / where males assemble to strut and boom, / you may hear their rumpled notes, / followed, at times, by rapid / and petulant cackling, / like laughter.” isotope, a journal of literary nature and science writing, published by Utah State University, boasts an impressive selection of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, in addition to a striking, full color portfolio of artwork by Richard Gate. This issue includes the winners of the first annual Editors’ Prizes: “Consumption,” a remarkable essay by Sunshine O’Donnell, and a suite of poems by Thomas Joswick that examine the life and art of John James Audubon. My favorite of Joswick’s poems is “Audubon Anticipates Dawn and Blood”: “Before sunrise, from scratching grounds, / where males assemble to strut and boom, / you may hear their rumpled notes, / followed, at times, by rapid / and petulant cackling, / like laughter.” Also noteworthy is Janette Fecteau’s poetic short-short, “Hounds of Light,” which illuminates the work of Nobel prize winning scientist Albert Abraham Michelson, “The earth’s slip along the luminiferous ether, stellar aberrations explained by light in waves. Waves, not packets. These are his preoccupations.” The work in Isotope celebrates and probes the natural world—from the pockets of nature that thrive in Manhattan to the Grand Canyon to the Florida Keys. However, the journal isn’t satisfied to simply explore these environments, but the points at which nature, science, art, culture, and human involvement intersect. Even if you don’t have a special interest in nature and science writing, Isotope still makes for an excellent read. [isotope] – Laura van den Berg