Taylor Brorby presents “Coming Alive: Action & Civil Disobedience” and “Crude: Poems about Place, Energy and Politics”

In Coming Alive Taylor Brorby overcomes his trepidations and embraces the most powerful action of all—standing by his words. He commits to what he values most—family, home, the arts, the earth—and becomes a role-model for how we can all learn to take a stand.
With an introduction by Bill McKibben, an afterword by Kathleen Dean Moore, and photography by Paul Anderson, Coming Alive is an intimate account of place and community: flares in North Dakota, pipeline protests, and the value of local action. Coming Alive explores the wisdom in the phrase: A thousand mile journey starts with the first step. Taylor Brorby reveals a way to hope during uncertain times.

 A manifesto for people battling issues of environmental devastation,Taylor Brorby’s Crude explores what it means to be from and of a place. Through natural history, personal experience, and a sense of awe, these poems explore the northern Great Plains—its troubled history, extractive economies, and what roots us to the places we call home. In this determined collection, these poems examine everything from the pallid sturgeon and General Custer, to prostitutes and wildcatters. Through his love of the land, Brorby unearths and wrestles with the complicated place that he calls home.

Taylor Brorby is an award-winning essayist, and a poet. A fellow at the Black Earth Institute, Taylor’s work has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including Orion, High Country News, The Huffington Post, and Hawk & Handsaw. He has received numerous recognition through grants and artist residencies. Taylor travels around the country regularly to speak about hydraulic fracking, is a co-editor of the country’s first anthology of creative writing about fracking, Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America, the author of Coming Alive: Action & Civil Disobedience and is Reviews Editor at Orion Magazine.