White desk with pink notebook, roses, keyboard, and gold paperclips that Francesca Varela uses to write environmental fiction

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  • Backs on Grass – A Short Story

    4–7 minutes

    Where did we come from? I don’t mean life. That’s been documented already; the pale curtain of lightning; the dense seas—Venusian, black like boiled leather; the first spark that tethered us all to water. Roger Gray was the first one to record it on video. He won the Nobel Prize for it about a decade

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  • From Rain to Red Rock

    1–2 minutes

    Making the transition from the rain forests of Oregon to the second driest state in the country has been quite the adventure. Utah is beautiful in a completely different way from the Pacific Northwest. There are the red deserts with ravens high above them; the aspen forests that flutter like wings; the long chains of

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  • The Shadows of Trees

    1–2 minutes

    They stretch long; the wings of birds pulsed up in flight, silhouettes positioned on rust, orange as the backs of deer, sunlight quietly waiting.

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  • All the Waters I Have Seen – Lake Superior

    1–2 minutes

    “Does it have a tide?” I asked. “A very slight one.” “Are there ever any actual waves?” “When you get out far enough.” “Do people swim in it?” “Sometimes. Usually it’s too cold.” “It doesn’t smell like the ocean,” I said, but they were skipping stones and had stopped listening.  Too many questions, I guessed,

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Learn more about Francesca Varela's novels