Gretel Ehrlich
{{short description|American poet}}
{{BLP sources|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Gretel Ehrlich
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1946|1|21}}
| birth_place = Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Writer
| period = 1978–present
| genre = Non fiction
| movement =
| notableworks = This Cold Heaven{{cite web | title=review of This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich |year=2001 | website=PublishersWeekly.com | url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780679442004 }}{{cite web | title='This Cold Heaven' | website=NPR | date=2001-12-21 | url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1135151 }}
| spouse =
| partner = Neal Conan (2014 to his death)
| children =
| relatives =
| awards = Whiting Award
Henry David Thoreau Prize[https://pen.org/henry-david-thoreau-prize/ PEN New England - Henry David Thoreau Prize for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing]
|website = {{URL|http://www.gretel-ehrlich.com/}}
|footnotes =
}}
Gretel Ehrlich is an American travel writer, poet and essayist.
Biography
Born in 1946 in Santa Barbara, California,[http://www.librarything.com/author/ehrlichgretel Library Thing] she studied at Bennington College and UCLA film school. She began to write full-time in 1978 while living on a Wyoming ranch after the death of a loved one. Ehrlich debuted in 1985 with The Solace of Open Spaces, a collection of essays on rural life in Wyoming.{{cite news|title=review of The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/01/books/what-a-mountain-is.html|author=Moore, Judith|date=December 1, 1985|page=41, Section 7}} Her first novel was also set in Wyoming, entitled Heart Mountain (1988), about a community being invaded by an internment camp for Japanese Americans.
One of Ehrlich's best-received books is a volume of creative nonfiction essays called Islands, The Universe, Home. Her characteristic style of merging intense, vivid, factual observations of nature with a wryly mystical personal voice is evident in this work.{{cite web | title=review of Islands, the Universe, Home by Gretel Ehrlich | website=Kirkus Reviews | date=1991-10-01 | url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gretel-ehrlich/islands-the-universe-home/?page=6 }} Other books include This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland{{cite web | last=Diski | first=Jenny |author-link=Jenny Diski |title=Review: This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich | website=the Guardian | date=2002-02-16 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/feb/16/travel.highereducation }}{{cite web | last=Birnbaum | first=Robert | title=Gretel Ehrlich Interview (This Cold Heaven) | website=Identity Theory | date=2001-12-28 | url=https://www.identitytheory.com/gretel-ehrlich/ }} [https://identitytheory.substack.com/p/remembering-robert-birnbaum Remembering Robert Birnbaum by Matt Borondy, December 8, 2023] Robert Birnbaum was a journalist and a longtime friend of Howard Zinn. and two volumes of poetry.
In 1991 Ehrlich was hit by lightning and was incapacitated for several years. She wrote a book about the experience, A Match to the Heart, which was published in 1994.{{cite news|author=Hass, Robert|author-link=Robert Hass|title=review of A Match to the Heart by Gretel Ehrlich|date=June 26, 1994|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1994/06/26/illuminations/1acbe426-af3a-4910-bd6d-751cd5720fd4/}} Since 1993, she has traveled extensively, especially through Greenland, Japan{{cite magazine|author=Ehrlich, Gretel|title=Japan, After the Wave|year=2013|magazine=Orion Magazine|url=https://orionmagazine.org/2013/08/japan-after-the-wave/}} and western China.{{cite web|title=review of Questions of Heaven: The Chinese Journeys of an American Buddhist by Gretel Ehrlich|website=Publishers Weekly|year=1997|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780807073100}}{{cite web | title=Gretel Ehrlich, Panelist | website=January 2006 Key West Literary Seminar | url=https://www.kwls.org/lit/past/adventure-travel/p_gretelehrlich.htm | access-date=2024-01-11}}
Her work is frequently anthologised, including The Nature Reader. She has also received many grants. In 1991, she collaborated with British choreographer Siobhan Davies, writing and recording a poem cycle for a ballet that opened in the Southbank Centre in London.[http://www.siobhandaviesreplay.com/record.php?id=4 The Archive of Siobhan Davies Dance - Arctic Heart] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119155354/http://www.siobhandaviesreplay.com/record.php?id=4 |date=2015-11-19 }}. Retrieved on 18 November 2015.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20151119142135/http://www.mussooriewriters.com/2012/05/22/gretel-ehrlich/ Mussoorie Writers - Gretel Ehrlich]}}. Retrieved on 18 November 2015.[http://braidedriver.org/authors?view=employee&id=13 Braided River: Gretel Ehrlich - Essayist]. Retrieved on 18 November 2015.
Selected bibliography
- To Touch the Water, Ahsahta Press, 1981, {{ISBN|978-0-916272-16-6}}
- The Solace of Open Spaces, Viking Press, 1985, {{ISBN|978-0-670-80678-2}}; {{cite book|title=2017 edition| isbn=978-1-5040-4288-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQG2DQAAQBAJ | last1=Ehrlich | first1=Gretel | date=21 February 2017 | publisher=Open Road Media }}
- Heart Mountain, Viking Press, 1988, {{ISBN|978-0-670-82160-0}}; {{cite book|title=2017 edition| isbn=978-1-5040-4286-4 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6gG2DQAAQBAJ | last1=Ehrlich | first1=Gretel | date=21 February 2017 | publisher=Open Road Media }}
- Drinking Dry Clouds: Stories from Wyoming, Capra Press, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-88496-315-8}}; {{cite book|title=2005 edition| date=January 2005 | publisher=U of Nebraska Press | isbn=0-8032-6754-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YLXYjdgfbpkC}}
- Islands, the Universe, Home, Viking Press, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-670-82161-7}}
- Arctic Heart: A Poem Cycle, Capra Press, 1992, {{ISBN|978-0-88496-357-8}}
- A Match to the Heart: One Woman's Story of Being Struck by Lightning, Pantheon Books, 1994, {{ISBN|978-0-679-42550-2}}; {{cite book|title=1995 ebook edition| isbn=978-1-4406-2108-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zvf0dSLCXMoC | last1=Ehrlich | first1=Gretel | date=June 1995 | publisher=Penguin }}
- John Muir: Nature's Visionary, National Geographic Society, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0-7922-7954-9}} [https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/bibliographic_resources/book_jackets/natures_visionary_ehrlich.aspx book jacket, courtesy of sierraclub.org]
- This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland, Pantheon Books, 2001, {{ISBN|978-0-679-44200-4}}
- The Future of Ice: A Journey Into Cold, Pantheon Books, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-375-42251-5}}
- In the Empire of Ice: Encounters in a Changing Landscape, National Geographic Society, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-4262-0574-3}}
- Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami, Pantheon, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-307-90731-8}}; {{cite book|title=2014 pbk edition| isbn=978-0-307-94927-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UuGODQAAQBAJ | last1=Ehrlich | first1=Gretel | date=11 March 2014 | publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing }}
- ”Unsolaced: Among the Way to All That Is”, Pantheon, 2021{{cite web|title=Gretel Ehrlich discusses her book, Unsolaced, with Frances McCue|date=February 1, 2021|publisher=Elliott Bay Book Company|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkSfFPJIw0U}} (See Frances McCue.) {{ISBN|978-0-307-91179-7}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://txarchives.org/ttusw/finding_aids/60268.xml Author papers (1923–2005) at Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University]
- [https://txarchives.org/ttusw/finding_aids/60228.xml Author papers (1960-2018) at Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100115123930/http://powells.com/authors/ehrlich.html Powell's Books interview with Gretel Ehrlich]
- [http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/gretel-ehrlich#/ Whiting Foundation Profile]
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Category:American nature writers
Category:Writers from Santa Barbara, California
Category:Poets from California
Category:American women memoirists
Category:American women essayists
Category:American women science writers