Steven H. Semken

"Placing the soul externally is not difficult. Just figure out how and where."

Last week in my graduate-level English course, we were discussing post-post-modernism and trying to come up with some great nonfiction examples. We had some ideas, but none of them came close to what Steve Semken has done here with Soul External. It's the future of nature writing at the intersection of fantasy, myth lore, natural history, personal essay, philosophy, and even theology. It's pastiche with several quotations celebrating the authors that have influenced Steve the most--from Edward Abbey to Robert Wolf--as well as full-color illustrations and typography by Andrew Driscoll and poetic text formatting that often had me wondering: what is this book I'm reading? Beautiful is what it is. It's the kind of book that you won't ever see as a mass market paperback. It's far too precious for that. It's a gift to all those who can't live without wildness.… (mehr)