“Like Thoreau’s Walden Pond, Ed Abbey’s southwestern desert or Wendell Berry’s rural Kentucky, Lockwood’s home country and study of grasshoppers lead us to universal themes?spirituality, the place of religion in science, the relationship between humans and the places they live, grasslands and ecology, the importance of family and friendship. Prairie Soul provides an acquaintance with the life and mind of the author that intrigues, enlightens and challenges the reader.”
—Robert Roripaugh, Wyoming Poet Laureate, 1995-2002
“In these soulful essays, Lockwood pricks our minds and our consciences as sharply as grassland cactus pricks the bare foot of the sojourner.”
—Alyson Hagy, author of Graveyard of the Atlantic
“Jeffrey Lockwood's Prairie Soul reminds us not only that the infinite and the infinitesimal exist side by side but also that practicing ecology is a way of practicing prayer. Whether he is hunting for grasshoppers on the Wyoming plains or studying locusts in Kazakhstan, Lockwood brings a sense of reverence and love to his work. An entomologist with a mystical bent, he invites us to walk mindfully on the earth, always relishing our contact with the land, yet always conscious of the mark we leave behind. Engaging and filled with delight, Prairie Soul is a celebration of an understated landscape, a tribute to the ‘austere abundance’ of the North American steppe.”
—Susan Hanson, author of Icons of Loss and Grace: Moments from the Natural World