This past year and a half living under global pandemic conditions has been challenging for all of us. Many have used this time to evaluate what means most to them and, perhaps, even make a change to their day-to-day lives. In particular, our class authors have utilized this time of great introspection to produce works across a wide gamut of genres—some with their first published works.

In March our own Alexandra Zissu released her sixth eco-related book, titled Earth Squad: Fifty People Who Are Saving the Planet. A work of juvenile nonfiction, her book is intended to inspire young eco-activists with stories of other environmental crusaders dedicated to making our world a better place; it further provides tips that anyone can do to help save the earth—thereby invoking the “Earth Squad” in which we can all be part. Alexandra has gained a reputation as a “green guru” and “green goddess,” having served as an environmental and sustainability focused writer, editor, and content consultant for a number of publications and private firms. She also sits on the board of Clean and Healthy New York. Her previous works include The Conscious Kitchen, The Complete Organic Pregnancy, Planet Home, and The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat. Alexandra, husband Olli Chanoff, and their family reside in the Hudson Valley area of New York, where they live close to the farms that feed them.

Entering the literary world with his own eye toward the importance of connection to nature, one of our class authors emerged from the travails of Covid by releasing his first book in July. Seán O’Donoghue published The Forest Reminds Us Who We Are via North Atlantic Press. The book explores personal, cultural, and ecological healing specifically through connection with wild plants. More specifically, it acts as a guidebook to allow its readers to tap into the medicinal power of wild flora and its ability to promote “spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being” through herbalist rituals designed to deepen connections between our own bodies and the land.

From the other end of the literary spectrum and with an air of escapism from the times in which we live, one of our more prolific and storied class authors produced the latest work within his thriller-based oeuvre. Unthinkable—the latest novel from our own bestselling Brad Parks—was also released in July. The protagonist of this newest Parksian book is Nate Lovejoy, a stay-at-home dad thrust into an impossible (nay, unthinkable) situation that could potentially save the lives of a billion people, if and only if Nate makes the right choices to save them. Brad himself was excited for the arrival of his book; he posted: “With all due respect to my birthday, Father’s Day, and most of the other 365 contestants, the day when finished books arrive from the publisher is absolutely one of my favorites of the year. And, okay, maybe I took Unthinkable to bed with me last night.”

I recently came across a saying from Philip Pullman (author of the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials) in which he said, “After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” In the case of these three dynamic class authors and particularly in times such as the ones we have all lived of late, those “stories” can equally provide the nourishment, shelter, and companionship we need to make ourselves and the world a little better by having read them. Congrats to all our amazing literarily inclined classmates on the publication of their respective works, and may the years ahead be filled with inspiration and continued good writing!

—Garrett Gil de Rubio, 1062 Middlebrooke Drive, Canton, GA 30115; ggdr@alum.dartmouth.org