My essay entitled “All Our Relations” is one of two non-fiction essays in the Bellevue Literary Review issue devoted to Our Fragile Environment.

“In university I was taught to scientifically classify organisms within the Tree of Life, dividing them into Kingdom, Phyla, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. A series of evolutionary events leading to us, the top-of-the-food-chain humans. In many ways this is helpful. In other ways it is not. Categorically separating ourselves from life-giving biota is potentially a suicidal act. We have another choice. When my Native California friends speak of Salmon Nations, they are not only referring to their tribal identity and their dependence on salmon. They are also speaking of the salmon people who return to spawn in sacred waterways: the Chinook, coho, chum, pink, sockeye. The Gwich’in believe they share a heart with the Caribou Nation, and treat the caribou, and their ancestral habitats, accordingly….”

The issue contains pithy prose, fascinating poetry, and a number of stories one wouldn’t ordinarily find in a journal published by a medical school (!!). You can order your copy here.