Prof. Andrew Furman Interview on New Book, Of Slash Pines and Manatees

Congratulations to Professor Andrew Furman on the forthcoming publication of a new book, Of Slash Pines and Manatees: A Highly Selective Field Guide to My Suburban Wilderness, which will be released on March 18th.

Grace Mackey's interview with Furman appears in Orange Blossom Ordinary . 

An exerpt:

Mackey: The title of your upcoming book, Of Slash Pines and Manatees: A Highly Selective Field Guide to My Suburban Wilderness, describes a relationship between Florida’s suburban life and wildlife. What inspired this topic?

Furman: Florida, at least the southeastern region of the state with which I’m most familiar, is simultaneously one of the most overdeveloped areas of the country AND one of the most naturally gorgeous places in the country. For whatever reason, I’ve been interested in the intermingling between the constructed and the unconstructed landscapes, and also the intermingling of all sorts of other apparent opposites: wild/domestic, nature/culture, native/non-native. About the time I was thinking these thoughts, I came across a passage from the poet, Mary Oliver, who lived in FL during the later years of her life. In Owls and Other Fantasies, she writes, “the world where the owl is endlessly hungry and endlessly in the hunt is the world in which I live too. There is only one world.” This resonated with me, as it jibed with how I was starting to see the constructed and unconstructed suburban landscape outside my window, that it was all really one world. My title, and the essays themselves, explore how porous these boundaries truly are between all these supposed binaries.  [ . . . ]