Field of Vision
Copyright © 1996
by Lisa Knopp
U of Iowa P
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In this contemplative collection of essays, Lisa Knopp moves out from the prairies of
Nebraska and Iowa to encompass a fully developed vision of light, memory, change,
separateness, time, symbols, responsibility, and unity. Knopp charts a stimulating
course among the individual, community, and culture that removes the boundaries
between self and other, allowing one to become fully present in the world. Her keen
vision sees beyond the ordinary to illuminate the mysteries and meanings of our
personal and natural worlds. — from the jacket
In her first collection of nature essays, Knopp offers 16 pieces filled with the evidence
not only of books but also of the eyes, ears, nose and taste buds to give a multidimensional
view of nature. ... Knopp,
like Eiseley, Burroughs, and Dillard, addresses the central question of American
nature writing: how to "see herself in the natural world but also see the natural
world of herself." — Publishers Weekly
A collection of essays on vision, not from the standpoint of the visual scientist but
from the perspective of an observant writer. ... Some of the essays are clearly
autobiographical. Others are less directly so, but all are the product of Knopp's
personal observations. Her writing style is clear, engaging, and at times almost
poetic. ... This work is reminiscent of The Object Stares Back, by James Elkins,
except that the latter is from the viewpoint of the art historian. — Choice
Lisa Knopp wants "to see the mundane as profoundly new," to "see and record the wild
places I know before they are gone. Each day, I am reminded that the natural world is
vanishing." Knopp, who wrote [this] book while living in Nebraska, and now teaches at
Southern Illinois University, presents a series of essays linked, she finds only after
writing them, by their common exploration of "the act of seeing." ... Wearing her
erudition lightly, Knopp leads readers through meditations that begin and end in close
observation but fly in all directions in between. She is the kind of writer whom I
would follow on any subject, confident that she could teach me new lays of a land I
thought already familiar, as well as lead me into altogether new territory. —
Women's Review of Books
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Flight Dreams:
A Life in the Midwestern Landscape
Copyright © 1998
by Lisa Knopp
U of Iowa P
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Reminiscent of Thoreau's introspective nature writing and Dillard's taut, personal prose,
each chapter in Flight Dreams stands alone as a distinct narrative, yet each is linked by
profoundly personal descriptions of dreams, the natural world, defining experiences, and
chance encounters with people that later prove to be fateful. Part Eastern meditation,
part dream sequence, part historical reconstruction, Flight Dreams testifies to a deep
understanding of how the natural world — its visible and invisible elements —
guides our destinies. — from the jacket
In Flight Dreams, Lisa Knopp captures the midwestern experience — what it
means to grow
up in a Mississippi River town and to wonder how it would feel to soar like one of the
birds overhead. Like an eagle or hawk, she finds ways to "move beyond what seems
oppressive and dull" and flies in the face of convention — working her way through
a PhD program, becoming a single mother, entering into a multiracial marriage,
and launching a writing career. Knopp lands on some of the
key social and political issues for women in the latter half of the twentieth century.
— Mary Swander
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The Nature of Home
Copyright © 2002
by Lisa Knopp
U of Nebraska P
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For Lisa Knopp, homesickness is a literal sickness. During a lengthy sojourn
away from the Nebraska prairie she fell ill, and only when she decided to return
home did she recover. Homesickness is the triggering event for this collection of
essays concerned with nothing less than what it means to feel at home. Knopp writes
masterfully about ecology, place, and the values and beliefs that sustain the
individual within an impersonal world. She is passionate about her subject
whether it be an endangered beetle in the salt marshes near Lincoln, Nebraska,
a forgotten Nebraska inventor, a museum muralist, a paleontologist, or the
roots of Arbor Day as a misguided attempt to "correct" a perceived lack in
the Great Plains landscape as seen from the sensibilities of Eastern settlers.
Here is a writer who has read widely and judiciously and for whom everything
resonates within the intricately structured definition of home. — from the jacket
An abiding devotion to a place and its inhabitants: sentimental in the right
way, mnemonic, tempting. — Kirkus Reviews
A significant treatment of home, environment, and natural history. It succeeds
on several levels: as an observant work of regional nature writing, as a thoughtful
collection of interlinked essays, and as a moving book of personal reflections. ...
It has the breadth and vision of Thoreau's Walden and the intimacy and integrity of
Scott Russell Sanders' Hunting for Hope while still maintaining its own unique
identity and its author's individual voice. — Robert Root, the author of EB
White: The Emergence of an Essayist
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What the Critics Say
