David Taylor

Research Topics

environmental humanities, history of naturalist studies, American Literature, nature writing

David Taylor is the Interim Director of the Sustainability Studies Division, an Associate Professor, and Faculty Director of the Environmental Humanities track in the Sustainability Studies major. His writing crosses disciplinary boundaries and genres—poetry, creative nonfiction, scholarship, and science writing; however, at the core of his work always is a concern for environmental sustainability and community. David is the author and editor of eight books. 
His most recent publication is Lead Editor and Contributor, An Island in the Stream: Ecocritical and Literary Responses to Cuban Environmental Culture (Lexington Books, 2019). In addition to the above, David has traveled to Cuba for over eight years collaborating with writers, artists, and scholars at Consejo Nacional Artes Escenicas (CNAE), Fundación Antonio Núñez Jiménez de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, Union Nacional Escritores y Artistas Consejo (UNEAC)–Cuban national writers organization, and the Department of Geography at the University of Havana. Recent scholarly essays on Cuban theatre include: “El Trompo: In the Sierra Maestra with Guerrilla de Teatreros.” La Gaceta (2017) 1: 18-20; Lead Editor, “TECMA and Theatre as Environmental Education.” Minding Nature, Center for Humans and Nature (January 2016); and Lead Editor, “Special Section on Cuban Theatre and Sustainability Outreach.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (Autumn 2015) 22 (4): 873-900.

His poetry includes Palm Up, Palm Down, Wings Press (Wings Press, 2017), Praying Up the Sun (Pecan Grove Press, 2008) and a chapbook The Log from The Sea of Cortez: A Poem Series (Wings Press, 2013) based on John Steinbeck’s 1940 collecting trip with biologist Ed Ricketts. Natural history writing and creative non-fiction includes Lawson’s Fork: Headwaters to the Confluence (Hub City Press, 2000), a personal narrative on the history and natural history of Lawson’s Fork, Spartanburg’s local river. He also edited an anthology, Pride of Place: A Contemporary Anthology of Texas Nature Writing (UNT Press, 2006) and was interviewed about this book on NPR on Earth Day, 2006.