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

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  • The Death of the Coyote’s Song

    1–2 minutes

    I remember the night we heard the coyotes. It was summer, or almost summer, and I was still a teenager. Although long past sunset, the sky wasn’t yet at its darkest, and the air through my open window smelled like dusk. As I tried to sleep I listened to the outside. Car brakes. Fountain. Creek water

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  • Listen

    1–2 minutes

    I wrote this book when I was living in a college dorm-room. That was my sophomore year, so I guess I was 19 and 20? I finished it by summer break, then set it aside to prepare for the release of my first novel, Call of the Sun Child, which came out in March 2014. And now, nearly

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  • As All Fields Are Vulnerable

    1–2 minutes

    What I want to know is, when will it be enough? When will the fields be safe? The sun caught in the grasses, and the deer, silent in the dry fall wind, following shadows to the yellow oak tree, everything still mysterious at mid-afternoon, And the throat-soaked crow songs, like every moment is heavy with the abruptness of

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  • Osprey – A Short Story, Part 3 (Finale)

    6–9 minutes

    The next day Alexis told her parents. “It’s an osprey, I think,” she said at breakfast. “I looked it up online. They’re the only predatory bird that only eats fish.” She led them upstairs, out on the balcony, where they all stood hip-to-hip. “Look at that,” her mother said. The babies were alone again. “Aren’t

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Learn more about Francesca Varela's novels