{"product_id":"the-bone-pile","title":"The Bone Pile: Collected Essays on Nature and Culture","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(241, 4, 4);\"\u003eForthcoming!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"togglefaq\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"icon icon-minus\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"faqtitle\"\u003eDetails\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"faqanswer first_answer\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LrgFieldTitle\"\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Maximilian Werner\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LrgFieldTitle\"\u003eISBN:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 978-0-88839-793-5 [Paperback]\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:\u003cspan\u003e 978-0-88839-794-2 [eBook]\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LrgFieldTitle\"\u003eBinding:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Trade Paperback\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LrgFieldTitle\"\u003eSize:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 5.5\" X 8.5\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LrgFieldTitle\"\u003ePages:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 272\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"LrgFieldTitle\"\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 01 November 2026\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"togglefaq\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"icon icon-minus\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"faqtitle\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"faqanswer first_answer\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSample Chapter\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat does it mean to be human in a world we have spent centuries trying to place ourselves above?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn The Bone Pile\u003c\/em\u003e, Maximilian Werner brings together essays that explore the uneasy and often contradictory relationship between human culture and the natural world. Moving from trout streams and hunting grounds to encounters with wolves, hawks, deer, fire, death, and the altered landscapes of the American West, Werner examines what the lives of other animals, and our treatment of them, can teach us about ourselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt once personal, philosophical, and grounded in ecological thinking, these essays challenge familiar assumptions about civilization, morality, religion, technology, and human exceptionalism. Werner draws on evolutionary biology and lived experience to consider humans not as observers standing outside nature, but as animals shaped by the same forces that govern every other living thing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProvocative without losing its sense of wonder, *The Bone Pile* asks readers to look more closely at the stories we tell about ourselves and the living world around us, and to consider what becomes possible when we begin to see ourselves as part of nature rather than apart from it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"togglefaq\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"icon icon-minus\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"faqtitle\"\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"faqanswer first_answer\"\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMaximilian Werner is an award-winning teacher and author of seven books, including the environmental novel and Utah Book Award finalist Crooked Creek, the memoir Gravity Hill, and the nonfiction monograph Wolves, Grizzlies, and Greenhorns: Death and Coexistence in the American West. His poems and essays have appeared in a wide array of academic and literary journals, such as The Ecological Citizen, Blaze Vox, The Robert Frost Review, The Journal of the West, Clade Song, CounterPunch, Written River: A Journal of Ecopoetics, Matter Journal: Edward Abbey Edition, Bright Lights Film Journal, The North American Review, ISLE, Weber Studies, and Columbia.  He is currently a Professor of Creative Writing and Environment at Iowa State University.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"togglefaq\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"icon icon-minus\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"faqtitle\"\u003eBook Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\" class=\"faqanswer first_answer\"\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\"Inspired by fly fishing, household tasks, family, friendship, and beautiful scenery, these meditative essays on nature, technology, ecology, religion, and wildness amplify awareness and wonder. They awaken us to think deeply even as we go about life’s most ordinary errands.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e— David K Leff, \u003c\/strong\u003eauthor of Canoeing Maine’s Legendary Allagash\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\"Maximilian Werner is a fly fisher with the heart of a poet—or perhaps a poet with the heart of a fly fisher. The Bone Pile doesn’t set out to preach metaphysics. It sets out to describe what is, and it does so with a careful, thoughtful, and thought-provoking observation and prose. But while the beauty of the writing is in the details...the book also does what the river in one of Werner’s essays does: it ‘shows us how we appear on the outside, but it also shows us what’s happening on the inside.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e— Matthew Dickerson, \u003c\/strong\u003eauthor of Trout in the Desert\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRelated Titles\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.hancockhouse.com\/products\/wolves-grizzlies-and-greenhorns\" title=\"Wolves, Grizzlies and Greenhorns: Death and Coexistence in the American West by Maximilian Werner\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1531\/5303\/products\/97808883953751000px_240x240.jpg?v=1748575747\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 16px 5px; float: none;\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hancock House Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45629643620528,"sku":null,"price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1531\/5303\/files\/9780888397935WEB.jpg?v=1790905229","url":"https:\/\/www.hancockhouse.com\/products\/the-bone-pile","provider":"Hancock House Publishers","version":"1.0","type":"link"}