DAVID GESSNER is author of A Wild, Rank Place (UPNE, 1997), Under the Devil's Thumb (1999) and Return of the Osprey (2001), which was a selection of the Book of the Month Club and named one of the top ten nonfiction titles of 2001 by the Boston Globe. He has taught environmental writing at Harvard University and is currently an assistant professor in the creative writing program at University of North Carolina-Wilmington.