Elizabeth Enslin
I'm a literary nonfiction writer, part-time yurt dweller, fourth-generation Oregonian, kitchen gardener, mother, anthropologist, and naturalist. I love frogs, snakes, bats, and the sound of coyotes howling. Some of my writing has been published in The Gettysburg Review, Crab Orchard Review, Fringe Magazine, Opium Magazine and others. I'm currently completing an ethnographic memoir – Sacred Threads – on my experiences as anthropologist, mother, and daughter-in-law working with a politically active Brahman family in rural Nepal. I've taught college and high school and currently serve part-time as a graduate advisor for the Master of Arts Program in Environmental Studies at Prescott College in Arizona.
By Elizabeth Enslin on March 11, 2010
The High Desert Journal has accepted another poem of mine, this time for Issue 11 of their print journal, due out in April. Although it doesn’t focus exclusively on cows, my sestina, “Now That I’ve Moved Inland,” does feature them in every stanza….
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Posted in Poetry, Recent | Tagged cows, Humor, Poetry
By Elizabeth Enslin on March 9, 2010
I had my first poem published in January and am proud to announce that another poem, “What the Photo Shows,” has been accepted for publication….
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Posted in Poetry, Publication, Recent | Tagged maturity, motherhood, nature writing, parenting, Poetry
By Elizabeth Enslin on March 8, 2010
Four months after I gave birth to my son in Nepal, I celebrated my very first International Women’s Day in 1988 in Gunjanagar, a village in western Chitwan District. It was also Gunjangar’s first time to organize an event for that day. I describe the scene in Sacred Threads, my ethnographic memoir-in-progress….
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Posted in Cultural Diversity, Politics and History, Recent, Sustainability, World Travel, Writing | Tagged inspiration, Nepal, women
By Elizabeth Enslin on March 3, 2010
A photo from the Joseph Canyon overlook in Northeastern Oregon…
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Posted in Around the Northwest, Images, Pacific Northwest travel, Recent | Tagged beauty, canyons, photography, rainbows
By Elizabeth Enslin on February 20, 2010
I work hard to polish the content of my literary nonfiction and poetry but don’t always give the same attention to titles….
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Posted in Recent, Writing Process | Tagged creative nonfiction, literary nonfiction, Poetry, stories
By Elizabeth Enslin on February 19, 2010
Tomorrow, we drive to NE Oregon to spend a week or so in our yurt (and a few other places). The creature I fear most on this trip is not the cougar, wolf or porcupine. It’s much smaller. Most females and the younger males of the species could fit into the palm of my hand….
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Posted in Recent, Species of the Week, Yurt Living | Tagged archaeology, climate change, Homesteading, mammals, wild
By Elizabeth Enslin on February 7, 2010
The calls and whistles (listen below) of the American pika (Ochotona princeps) are one of the delights of hiking into remote alpine areas — and such a refreshing escape from the noise of daily news, courtroom dramas, and political debates. Now the tiny rabbit relative may unwittingly generate press releases, research reports and legal briefs higher than its hay piles….
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Posted in Recent, Species of the Week | Tagged climate change, endangered species, mammals
By Elizabeth Enslin on February 5, 2010
I try not to blog about my pets too much, but I came across a blog post this morning that prompts me to defend my dog’s honor….
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Posted in Pets, Recent | Tagged dogs, photography, standard poodles
By Elizabeth Enslin on February 2, 2010
A contemporary song reminds me of all that inspired me to become an anthropologist eons ago….
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Posted in Cultural Diversity, Recent | Tagged cultural anthropology, inspiration, maturity, music, stories
By Elizabeth Enslin on January 28, 2010
Within 24 hours, Howard Zinn and J.D. Salinger die, and Steve Jobs announces the iPad (which — menstrual jokes aside — may or may not revolutionize how we interact with the written word). I’m too busy trying to meet end-of-month writing deadlines to meditate on these odd conjunctions. And perhaps writing is the best way
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Posted in Politics and History, Recent, Social media | Tagged current events, history, inspiration
Fringe Magazine
High Desert Journal
In the Mist
Opium Magazine
Oregon Literary Review
The Smoking Poet
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