Erik Reece is an American writer, the author of two books of nonfiction - ''Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness: Radical Strip Mining and the Devastation of Appalachia'' (New York:

Riverhead Books Riverhead Books is an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) founded in 1994 by Susan Petersen Kennedy. Writers published by Riverhead include Ali Sethi, Marlon James (novelist), Marlon James, Junot Díaz, George Saunders, Khaled Hosseini, Nick Hornby, ...

, 2006) and ''An American Gospel: On Family, History, and The Kingdom of God'' (New York:

, 2009), and numerous essays and magazine articles, published in

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

, and

Orion magazine ''Orion'' is a quarterly, advertisement-free, nonprofit magazine focused on nature, culture, and place addressing environmental and societal issues. It has published such authors as Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, Michael P ...

. He also maintains a blog The Future We Want for

True/Slant ''True/Slant'' (T/S) was an original content news network. It was based in a loft in SoHo in New York City funded with $3 million in capital by Forbes Media and Fuse Capital. It was acquired by Forbes in May 2010. It launched its alpha in April 2 ...

. He is writer-in-residence at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

in Lexington, where he teaches

environmental journalism Environmental journalism is the collection, verification, production, distribution and exhibition of information regarding current events, trends, and issues associated with the non-human world. To be an environmental journalist, one must have an ...

, writing, and literature.

Life

Reece was born and raised in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. He received two degrees from the

, where he studied with

Guy Davenport Guy Mattison Davenport (November 23, 1927 – January 4, 2005) was an American writer, translator, illustrator, painter, intellectual, and teacher. Life Guy Davenport was born in Anderson, South Carolina, in the foothills of Appalachia on Novem ...

Work

Prose

Reece's first book-length prose was a companion essay to Guy Davenport's collection of his drawings and paintings, ''A Balance of Quinces.'' Before that, he published a collection of poems, ''My Muse Was Supposed to Meet Me Here.'' Reece's 2006 book ''Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness'' (New York:

, 2006), with photos by John J. Cox and a foreword by

Wendell Berry Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ' ...

, chronicles the devastating effects of

mountaintop removal Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), also known as mountaintop mining (MTM), is a form of surface mining at the summit or summit ridge of a mountain. Coal seams are extracted from a mountain by removing the land, or overburden, above the seams. Thi ...

mining in

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

from October 2003 through November 2004. The book grew out of an essay for ''

'' entitled "Death of a Mountain: Radical Strip Mining and the Leveling of Appalachia," which was published in the April 2005 edition and which would win the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism from the

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...

. In 2009, Reece published ''An American Gospel: On Family, History, and The Kingdom of God'' (New York:

, 2009), a book about Reece's upbringing as the son and grandson of Baptist preachers, his father's suicide, and his own subsequent struggle to find a form of Christianity with which he would feel comfortable—and the guidance he received from the writings of Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman and other American geniuses. This book, too, grew out of an essay for ''

'', "Jesus Without the Miracles: Thomas Jefferson's Bible and the Gospel of Thomas".

Poetry

Reece's first published book was a collection of poems, ''My Muse Was Supposed to Meet Me Here.'' He edited the 2007 anthology ''Field Work: Modern Poems from Eastern Forests'' (Lexington, KY: The University of Press of Kentucky, 2007), an anthology of poems about the landscape and ecology of the eastern United States. It includes the work of modern American poets (among them,

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...

Hayden Carruth Hayden Carruth (August 3, 1921 – September 29, 2008) was an American poet, literary critic and anthologist. He taught at Syracuse University. Life Hayden Carruth was born in Waterbury, Connecticut and grew up in Woodbury, Connecticut. He gra ...

, Charles Wright) plus that of four classical Chinese poets, who wandered and wrote about an area of southeastern China that is similar in landscape and ecology to the eastern woodlands of the United States.

Awards

In addition to the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism from the

, in 2006 Erik Reece received the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

's David R. Brower Award for Environmental Journalism.

References

The Future We Want
Erik Reece's blog at ''

''
Erik Reece's websiteErik Reece interview

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 6 ...

with

Terry Gross Terry Gross (born February 14, 1951) is an American journalist who is the host and co-executive producer of ''Fresh Air'', an interview-based radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed nationally by NPR. Since joining NPR i ...

Erik Reece interview
via buzzflash *Reece, Erik

via Harper's Magazine *Reece, Erik (February 9, 2006 ebruary 27, 2006 issuebr>Who Killed the Miners?
''

'' *Reece, Erik (April 3, 2009
Save Jesus, Ignore Easter
Controversial "On Faith" column in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' *Reece, Erik (October 4, 2013
The End of Illth: In search of an economy that won't kill us
''

.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Reece, Erik University of Kentucky faculty American investigative journalists American environmentalists Living people Environmental bloggers Writers from Louisville, Kentucky Year of birth missing (living people)