University of New Orleans English professor Richard Goodman is a co-editor for a first-of-its-kind anthology of environmental writing that publishes March 2 by the University Press of Florida.

Goodman’s co-editor, Tori Bush, is a UNO graduate from the Master of Fine Arts program. She's now a doctoral candidate at Louisiana State University.

The book, “The Gulf South,” features the work of diverse voices from the past 100 years that explores the relationship between people and the rapidly changing ecology of the Gulf. It includes work from a variety of genres including journalism, poetry, memoir and a graphic nonfiction book.

The collection includes writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, alongside contemporary writers such as novelist Jesmyn Ward and journalists Bob Marshall and John Barry.

The subjects include natural and human-made disasters, the impact of industry, influential historical events, personal encounters with the environment, and a deep love for the land and water by the people who live there, according to a book summary.         

“This is a unique book,” Goodman said.  “There's never been an anthology of environmental writing about the Gulf South.”

Goodman, an associate professor of English who specializes in nonfiction, previously engaged his MFA students by leading them on kayak trips through Louisiana bayous as part of a distinctive writing assignment. To read more about that, click here.