Center for Humans & Nature

Center for Humans & Nature Humans & Nature Press shares ideas that build community and inspire action. Humans & Nature Farm is a place where ideas take root.

The Center for Humans & Nature is home to a press and farm that explore in-depth and diverse perspectives about what it means to be human in an interconnected world. The Center is a place to experience human connection with nature and consider our responsibilities to the whole community of life. Forty miles north of Chicago, the Center is home to breathtakingly beautiful prairie, savanna, wetland,

woodland, ravine, and riparian ecosystems. Strachan Donnelley, the Center’s founder, spent his formative years within this landscape, both experiencing the world around him and trying to understand the human place within it. The land is the ancestral homelands of the Council of Three Fires—the Potawatomi, Ojibwa, and Ottawa—as well as the Kickapoo, Sioux, Peoria, Miami, Sauk, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Meskwaki, and other Native Peoples. We recognize and celebrate the unbreakable ties to this land for Indigenous Peoples past, present, and future. We commit ourselves to listening deeply to the wise teachers in our midst who have thought about human relationships with this land since time immemorial. We have a small team of staff, editorial fellows, and board members who are committed to the Center’s mission. Our community of contributors to Humans & Nature Press comes to the Center through the annual digital press open call, the Questions series curated by editorial fellows, and through books published by the press.

✨ Submissions are now open for single-author book manuscript proposals! The books branch of Humans & Nature Press is acc...
06/01/2026

✨ Submissions are now open for single-author book manuscript proposals! The books branch of Humans & Nature Press is accepting submissions today through August 3, 2026 at 11:59pm PDT. ✨

🔗 To submit a proposal, please visit www.humansandnature.org/book-manuscript-proposals

🌿 The Center for Humans & Nature is home to a press and a farm that explore in-depth & diverse perspectives about what it means to be human in an interconnected world.

📚 The books branch of Humans & Nature Press has three anthology series under our own imprint: Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations; Elementals; and Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature (forthcoming 2026). We’re also supporting three single-author manuscripts, the first of which is scheduled for release this year.

✍️ The Center’s publication platforms amplify the work of those who illuminate how principles of reciprocity, care, and justice apply to the whole community of life. We share stories and ideas from philosophers, poets, authors, academics, artists, and activists who are committed to multidisciplinary and multicultural approaches to knowing the world.

We’re looking for manuscripts that are socially relevant, emotionally compelling, creatively written, and critically discerning, which feature vivid storytelling and engage the empathic imaginations of readers.

We’re looking for work that demonstrates the scope and ambitions of our Press publications—writing that explores ideas and ideals (practice, connection, cosmology, ethics) and on-the-ground community and culture (historical, social, political).

We want masterful storytelling and creative, bold choices.

✨ Proposals that receive consideration would typically be categorized as creative nonfiction. ✨

We are not currently accepting fiction or poetry.

🔗 Info regarding our selection process, guidelines, and FAQs is available here: https://humansandnature.org/book-manuscript-proposals

🍃 Please thoroughly review the submission guidelines & FAQs. 🍃

Thank you for your proposals!
📷: Green plant leaves by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

[open call, call for submissions, writers, book writing]



IDs in comments.

✍️ On June 1st, the books branch of Humans & Nature Press will open a call for single-author book manuscript proposals.✨...
05/18/2026

✍️ On June 1st, the books branch of Humans & Nature Press will open a call for single-author book manuscript proposals.

✨ Submissions open June 1st, 2026 at 9am PDT and close August 3rd, 2026 at 11:59pm PDT. ✨

🔗 For guidelines & FAQs, read more below and please visit this link: https://humansandnature.org/book-manuscript-proposals

🌿 The Center for Humans & Nature is home to a press and a farm that explore in-depth & diverse perspectives about what it means to be human in an interconnected world.

📚 The books branch of Humans & Nature Press has three anthology series under our own imprint: Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations; Elementals; and Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature (forthcoming 2026).

We’re also supporting three single-author manuscripts, the first of which is scheduled for release this year.

The Center’s publication platforms amplify the work of those who illuminate how principles of reciprocity, care, and justice apply to the whole community of life. We share stories and ideas from philosophers, poets, authors, academics, artists, and activists who are committed to multidisciplinary and multicultural approaches to knowing the world.

We’re looking for manuscripts that are socially relevant, emotionally compelling, creatively written, and critically discerning, which feature vivid storytelling and engage the empathic imaginations of readers.

We’re looking for work that demonstrates the scope and ambitions of our Press publications—writing that explores ideas and ideals (practice, connection, cosmology, ethics) and on-the-ground community and culture (historical, social, political).

We want masterful storytelling and creative, bold choices.

📖 Proposals that receive consideration would typically be categorized as creative nonfiction.

We are not currently accepting fiction or poetry.

Submission guidelines and answers to frequently asked questions are available here: https://humansandnature.org/book-manuscript-proposals 🔗

Note: We’re a small team. Please thoroughly review the Submission Guidelines and FAQs before reaching out with questions.

We look forward to your proposals!

Image description in comments.

Photo: A close up of a leaf by Eugene Golovesov on Unsplash

[open call, small press, call for submissions, writers, indie press, book publishing, writing, books, independent press]

✍️ This year, the books branch of Humans & Nature Press will again open a call for single-author book manuscript proposa...
05/04/2026

✍️ This year, the books branch of Humans & Nature Press will again open a call for single-author book manuscript proposals.

✨ Submissions open June 1st, 2026 at 9am PDT and close August 3rd, 2026 at 11:59pm PDT. ✨

🔗 For guidelines & FAQs, read more below and please visit this link: https://humansandnature.org/book-manuscript-proposals

🌿 The Center for Humans & Nature is home to a press and a farm that explore in-depth & diverse perspectives about what it means to be human in an interconnected world.

📚 The books branch of Humans & Nature Press has three anthology series under our own imprint: Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations; Elementals; and Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature (forthcoming 2026).

We’re also supporting three single-author manuscripts, the first of which is scheduled for release this year.

The Center’s publication platforms amplify the work of those who illuminate how principles of reciprocity, care, and justice apply to the whole community of life. We share stories and ideas from philosophers, poets, authors, academics, artists, and activists who are committed to multidisciplinary and multicultural approaches to knowing the world.

We’re looking for manuscripts that are socially relevant, emotionally compelling, creatively written, and critically discerning, which feature vivid storytelling and engage the empathic imaginations of readers.

We’re looking for work that demonstrates the scope and ambitions of our Press publications—writing that explores ideas and ideals (practice, connection, cosmology, ethics) and on-the-ground community and culture (historical, social, political). We want masterful storytelling and creative, bold choices.

📖 Proposals that receive consideration would typically be categorized as creative nonfiction. We are not currently accepting fiction or poetry.

Further information regarding our selection process, guidelines, and FAQs is available here: https://humansandnature.org/book-manuscript-proposals 🔗

✨ We’re a small team. Please thoroughly review the Submission Guidelines and FAQs before reaching out with questions. We look forward to your proposals! ✨

Image description in comments.

[open call, small press, call for submissions, writers, indie press, book publishing, writing, books, independent press]

04/29/2026

🌱 A spring wander through the woodland at the Center for Humans & Nature.

04/27/2026

🔥 In case you missed it: We recently had our first prescribed burn at the Center for Humans & Nature. During the burn, we were witness to prairie and savanna healing, with the burn taking place across approximately 20 acres.

For the prescribed burn, staff members Anja Claus and Brooke Hecht were on-site along with long-time land steward Paul Quinn, who volunteered with the burn crew. Doug DeWitt led the amazing team from Tallgrass Restoration ().

The burn crew moved synchronously, with grace, precision, and insight. They seemed to have an elemental partnership with fire, air, earth, and water as they healed the land, while also protecting bee hives, buildings, and newly planted Pawpaws, Elderberries, and Serviceberries.

Planning for this burn has been over a year in the making as we raised funds and waited on permits and the right conditions. For the land, it has been many years since the last burn. So, the land has been waiting, too!

Fire is an important signal to prairie and savanna seeds in the seedbed that conditions are right for germination.

We were thrilled to participate in a land care practice that has fostered land health in this region for millennia. In the coming weeks, we will watch for new green growth, along with an abundance of color and biodiversity.

Pictured: Scenes from the prescribed burn at the Center for Humans & Nature. Doug DeWitt (in yellow) leads the team from Tallgrass Restoration ().

Videos by Anja Claus and Brooke Hecht and editing by Erin Williams.

🎙️ The new audio project Wonder Cabinet shares intimate conversations about the mysteries of the cosmos and life on a se...
04/22/2026

🎙️ The new audio project Wonder Cabinet shares intimate conversations about the mysteries of the cosmos and life on a sentient planet with writers, philosophers, and scientists who are dazzled by it all.

The recently released episode of Wonder Cabinet, “Dekila Chungyalpa on the Sacred Feminine and the Living Earth” was produced in partnership with the Center for Humans & Nature and the Kalliopeia Foundation.

Dekila Chungyalpa founded and directs the LOKA Initiative at the Center for Healthy Minds in Madison, Wisconsin.

🔗 Listen to—or read along with—this episode of Wonder Cabinet here: https://wondercabinetproductions.com/dekila-chungyalpa-on-the-sacred-feminine-and-the-living-earth 🎧

During the next year, Wonder Cabinet will be sharing more conversations about spiritual ecology, the earth, and women’s lives.

🔈 Wonder Cabinet is from Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson, the creators of the Peabody Award-winning public radio show To The Best Of Our Knowledge.

🔗 Read “At the Center of All Things is Interdependence,” Dekila Chungyalpa’s contribution to Humans & Nature Press: https://humansandnature.org/at-the-center-of-all-things-is-interdependence

✍️ This essay is part of the Questions for a Resilient Future series from Humans & Nature Press, “How do we create communities to which all of us can belong?” and can be explored here: https://humansandnature.org/how-do-we-create-communities-to-which-all-of-us-can-belong

📷 Over the last year, the Kinship Photography Collective invited photographers from around the globe to deepen their rel...
04/21/2026

📷 Over the last year, the Kinship Photography Collective invited photographers from around the globe to deepen their relationships with elemental air, water, fire, and earth.

📚 Inspired by the Elementals book series from the Center for Humans & Nature, photographers explored the elements through personal and collaborative projects.

🌱 On Earth Day, you are invited to join the Kinship Photography Collective along with Gavin Van Horn, co-editor of the Elementals book series, and John Hausdoerffer, Ph.D., the editor of volume five, An Elemental Life, for an Elementals gathering.

At this confluence of air, fire, water, and earth, they will bring the elements into conversation with one another by asking the practice-oriented question, “What is an elemental life?”

Together, through photographs and rich conversation, we will question: If the elements are kin to one another, what does it mean to live in kinship with the elements? If kinship is replacing individuality as our frame for living a good life, then how are the elements—the interconnected ingredients of our interstellar sphere of kin—telling us how to live? What practices or rituals can help us keep the elementals alive in our creative lives?

Join the Kinship Photography Collective and the Center for Humans & Nature as we celebrate this rich and inspiring collaboration.

🔗 Sign up for this free online event here: https://kinship.photography/gatherings-list/an-elemental-life

✨ An Elemental Life with Gavin Van Horn and John Hausdoerffer, Ph.D. // Wednesday, April 22nd, at 7 pm EDT on Zoom ✨

🔗 Read more about the Elementals book series from Humans & Nature Press at https://humansandnature.org/elementals 📚

📖 The full Elementals series and individual volumes are available for purchase at https://humansandnature.org/shop

📷 Featured image by Megan Driving Hawk.

Image description in comments.



[earth day, elements, elementals, kinship, photography, creative nonfiction]

“Essential reading about the question of our time: how to belong.” — David George Haskell on “Kinship”“Refreshing as des...
04/16/2026

“Essential reading about the question of our time: how to belong.” — David George Haskell on “Kinship”

“Refreshing as desert rain yet implacable as a flash flood.” — David Abram on “Elementals”

📚 Every book purchase from our online shop supports our small, independent press. Explore multi-volume series and individual volumes here: humansandnature.org/shop 💚

📷 Over the last year, the Kinship Photography Collective invited photographers from around the globe to deepen their rel...
04/16/2026

📷 Over the last year, the Kinship Photography Collective invited photographers from around the globe to deepen their relationships with elemental air, water, fire, and earth.

📚 Inspired by the Elementals book series from the Center for Humans & Nature, photographers explored the elements through personal and collaborative projects.

🌱 On Earth Day, you are invited to join the Kinship Photography Collective along with Gavin Van Horn, co-editor of the Elementals book series, and John Hausdoerffer, the editor of volume five, An Elemental Life, for an Elementals gathering.

At this confluence of air, fire, water, and earth, they will bring the elements into conversation with one another by asking the practice-oriented question, “What is an elemental life?”

Together, through photographs and rich conversation, we will question: If the elements are kin to one another, what does it mean to live in kinship with the elements? If kinship is replacing individuality as our frame for living a good life, then how are the elements—the interconnected ingredients of our interstellar sphere of kin—telling us how to live? What practices or rituals can help us keep the elementals alive in our creative lives?

Join the Kinship Photography Collective and the Center for Humans & Nature as we celebrate this rich and inspiring collaboration.

🔗 Sign up for this free online event here: www.kinship.photography/gatherings-list/an-elemental-life

✨ An Elemental Life with Gavin Van Horn & John Hausdoerffer // Wednesday, April 22nd, at 7 pm EDT on Zoom ✨

🔗 Read more about the Elementals book series from Humans & Nature Press at https://humansandnature.org/shop/elementals-five-volume-set 📚

📷 Featured photos by Lynn Cricket Woodward (left) and Dale Rio (right)

Image description in comments.

✍️🎨 For the past several years, we have been delighted to host an annual open call through the digital branch of Humans ...
04/13/2026

✍️🎨 For the past several years, we have been delighted to host an annual open call through the digital branch of Humans & Nature Press, inviting diverse voices into the Center for Humans & Nature’s growing conversation about what it means to be human in an interconnected world.

We have been moved by what you have all shared: essays that surprised us, poems that lingered, art that delighted. Thank you.

We have received inquiries about a 2026 open call, so we want to share that the digital branch of Humans & Nature Press will not be hosting an open call this year.

📚 However, the books branch of Humans & Nature Press is hosting an open call in 2026. Submissions will be open from June 1st through August 3rd for single-author manuscript proposals. Proposals that receive consideration for this open call would typically be categorized as creative nonfiction. Please visit this link for full submission guidelines and answers to FAQs: https://humansandnature.org/book-manuscript-proposals

🌱 Importantly, thank you to everyone who submitted creative work to the 2025 open call on the theme of seeds for the digital branch of Humans & Nature Press.

✉️ Last week, we completed another round of reviews, and notices were sent via Submittable to the writers, poets, and artists whose work has moved forward in our multi-stage review process. We are a very small team; we appreciate your patience as we work on the final stages of our review with our Editorial Advisory Board.

✉️ Notices were also sent via Submittable to the writers, poets, and artists whose work has not moved forward in our review process.

We are, as ever, grateful for the thoughtfulness, time, and care each open call submission represents. Thank you for trusting us with your creative work and for joining us in considering what seeds we are all planting for the future. 💚

We are sending gratitude from our whole team to this community!

Image description in comments.

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https://humansandnature.org/humans-and-nature-press-digital, http://humansandnature.org

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