A book cover featuring whimsical art of a large fish jumping out of water.

The Accidental Reef

and Other Ecological Odysseys in the Great Lakes

by Lynne Heasley

Find this book on WorldCat

Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, 2021 | Illustrations by Glenn Wolff

“Heasley combines difficult science (amply documented), reportage, historical and literary sensibilities with a crystalline style that is not afraid to confront state of the art research with the occasional lyrical flourish, and even sometimes with a bit of humor. She moves through scientific and imaginative literature to end with important philosophical issues about our relationships with the Great Lakes. All of this has resulted in a unique book, one of the most readable regional environmental books I have encountered.”

– Keith Taylor (via GoodReads)

Description

2022 NAUTILUS SILVER WINNER FOR LYRIC PROSE—In The Accidental Reef and Other Ecological Odysseys in the Great Lakes, Lynne Heasley illuminates an underwater world that, despite a ferocious industrial history, remains wondrous and worthy of care. From its first scene in a benighted Great Lakes river, where lake sturgeon thrash and spawn, this powerful book takes readers on journeys through the Great Lakes, alongside fish and fishers, scuba divers and scientists, toxic pollutants and threatened communities, oil pipelines and invasive species, Indigenous peoples and federal agencies. With dazzling illustrations from Glenn Wolff, the book helps us know the Great Lakes in new ways and grapple with the legacies and alternative futures that come from their abundance of natural wealth. Suffused with curiosity, empathy, and wit, The Accidental Reef will not fail to astonish and inspire. (via Amazon)

Lynne Heasley is an environmental historian in the School of Environment, Geography, and Sustainability at Western Michigan University. She serves on the advisory boards of the University Center for the Humanities and the Native American Affairs Council at WMU, as well the boards for the Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance, and the Forest History Society. She has done research in West Africa and the Kickapoo Valley of Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, but today her work focuses on the “more-than-human worlds of the Great Lakes.” She writes on her website: “Making sense of complex ecocultural relationships, and care for community well-being, are both deep concerns in my research and writing. These include land and water tenure; conditions of injustice and justice; different kinds of knowledges, perspectives, sense of place; and especially our troubled relationships with land, water, and the other beings we share these with.” Heasley is also an avid photographer, and some of her work is featured around the Library of the Great Lakes website!

A photo of author Lynne Heasley wearing winter gear in front of a large field and mountains.

Learn more about Lynne Heasley and The Accidental Reef at: lynneheasley.com