In ‘Fen, Bog & Swamp,’ Annie Proulx pens a history of wetland destruction
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx may be best known for her works of fiction, titles like The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain. But the 87-year-old author’s newest book, Fen, Bog & Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis, is a love letter to ecosystems that are rapidly disappearing — America’s wetlands. ”Before the last wetlands disappear I wanted to know about this world we are losing,” Proulx writes. “What was a world of fens, bogs and swamps and what meaning did these peatlands have, not only for humans but for all other life on Earth?”