New Book!

CANOPY OF TITANS: The Life and Times of the Great North American Temperate Rainforest

PAUL KOBERSTEIN and JESSICA APPLEGATE
Relased in Print on August 29, 2023. Released as an Audiobook on November 28, 2023

“An eloquent plea for saving one of North America's last great forests.” —Elizabeth Kolbert

“We've understood that the Amazon rainforest is crucial to the planet but, as this very fine book makes clear, it is no more important than the great temperate forests of the Pacific coast.”
—Bill McKibben

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The Amazon of the North

In 2020, when we were in the midst of writing Canopy of Titans, an unprecedented ring of deadly firestorms engulfed the giant conifer rainforest surrounding our hometown of Portland, Oregon, packing blood-red skies with a thick grit. Our lungs filled with smoke. We ached with every labored breath.

Some of the most severe wildfires ever in the American West torched the parched landscape with great fury, but we weren’t alone in the crosshairs. Forests burned everywhere: the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The most intense fires burned through the giant eucalyptus forests of southern Australia. Australians called the season their “black summer,” the smoke so thick it triggered home fire alarms in Sydney. Smoke also smothered Africa from the Sahel to South Africa. And in South America, more than 80,000 fires blazed through the Amazon rainforest, many ignited by humans clearing land for agriculture.

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Canopy of Titans is a Finalist for the 2024 Oregon Book Awards!

Literary Arts has named Canopy of Titans as a finalist for a 2024 Oregon Book Awards in the category of General Nonfiction.

Literary Arts selected Jessica Applegate and Paul Koberstein as among 37 Oregon writers as finalists in seven categories, out of a total of 190 who submitted titles. They were selected by a panel of out-of-state judges.

Winners will be announced live at the 2024 Oregon Book Awards Ceremony, hosted by Kwame Alexander, at Portland Center Stage at The Armory on Monday, April 8, 2024.

Past winners for the award include Barry Lopez, Ken Kesey, Ursula Le Guin and Chuck Palahniuk.

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