David Gessner Journalist Profile

Articles

THE BOOK OF FLACO

2 months ago | kirkusreviews.com | David Gessner |Amy Tan |Walter Isaacson

A well-told story of the bird that captured the imagination of New York and much of the world. The story of the owl that escaped from a New York zoo and fascinated the city. Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl, escaped from the Central Park Zoo in February 2023 after someone cut open his enclosure. He lived free in and around Central Park—with forays to other parts of the city—eating rats, pigeons, and other small game that he caught.
A Hard Patience

Apr 23, 2024 | ecotonemagazine.org | David Gessner

“Pick an animal. Any animal.”The words came, not from a magician, but from Linda Hogan, a Native American writer of the Chickasaw Nation, who was my teacher in a creative writing class at the University of Colorado. I picked a common enough animal, a great blue heron, and following Hogan’s assignment, spent two weeks watching it, sketching it, taking notes on its movements. And. . . and, how to put this? Well, it changed everything. The assignment had seemed straightforward, dull.
Flaco: A Triptych ~ Part 2: Evolution

Apr 16, 2024 | terrain.org | David Gessner

Flaco: A TriptychBy David GessnerRead all three parts of this series:Part 1: The EscapePart 2: EvolutionPart 3: Visitation [coming soon]Imagine Flaco, the escaped Eurasian eagle-owl, flying through Central Park after dark. Owls are known as the lords of the night, but it is during the crepuscular hours that they truly reign. Flaco would have flown silently, his wings holding an evolutionary secret that humans had long noted but not understood.
Christopher Lancette

Mar 26, 2024 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Elizabeth Rush |Adam Welz |David Lipsky |David Gessner

Christopher Lancette is a Maryland-based freelance writer focused on nature, the environment, American history, politics, and books. He has written for more than 50 national and local publications ranging from Biography and Entrepreneur to Fine Books & Collections and Salon. He has also served as a communications manager for the Trust for Public Land and communications director at the Wilderness Society. He spends much of his time on his passion project at EyeOnSligoCreek.com.
The Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative Hopes to Give Wildlife Room to Roam

Mar 13, 2024 | sierraclub.org | David Gessner

IT WAS EARLY July when I drove north through Wyoming. For hours, the world stretched out, arid and desolate. Then something miraculous happened: The land began to curve and convolute, twisting and then greening. Better yet, I came upon one of the most graceful and beautiful animals on the planet—pronghorn. They were everywhere, with curved black horns, their coats tawny brown and vivid white.
Review of Ben Goldfarb’s new book ecology book, “Crossings”

Oct 6, 2023 | washingtonpost.com | David Gessner

When I learned about Ben Goldfarb’s new book, “Crossings,” I was in the midst of a crossing of my own, traveling from the border wall in Arizona to the smoky mountains of Canada. I was working on an article about, in part, how roads affect animal migration, and considering expanding the piece into a book.
In new book from Wilmington writer, it's the 'End of the World' but with a sense of humor

Jun 30, 2023 | starnewsonline.com | David Gessner

Ben SteelmanStarNews CorrespondentWilmington writer David Gessner doesn't just hit the library when he writes a book. He hits the road. In "The Tarball Chronicles," he traveled much of the Gulf Coast to survey the short- and long-term impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Wallace Stegner and Edward Abbey, he tramped through the wild places they loved.
The Dead Writers’ Society (Transcription)

Jun 24, 2023 | ecotonemagazine.org | David Gessner

Page 1 Title: The Dead Writers’ SocietyBelow, author and illustrator David Gessner writes in parentheses: “Trigger Warning: Morbidity Ahead.” In small font he adds, “One day I hope to join.”Below the title, an illustration shows five men.
A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water

Jun 23, 2023 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | David Gessner

David Gessner’s latest book, A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water, isn’t quite a declaration that our planet is doomed. Or that there’s no sense in trying to reverse course at this late hour in hopes of slipping free of the climate-change-slaughtered albatross we draped around our collective neck. Instead, A Traveler’s Guide is a highway road sign bedazzled with flashing-red lights that command us to halt — and to open our ears to what the earth is saying.
Book World: An environmental writer asks: What world will my daughter inherit?

Jun 22, 2023 | mrt.com | David Gessner |Dennis Drabelle

- - - In his 1950 acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in literature, William Faulkner said, "I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail." The title of David Gessner's new book, "A Traveler's Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water," suggests a 21st-century update of Faulkner's dictum: Man will prevail but might not endure.