Neighborhood Hawks follows in the tradition of writings from Henry David Thoreau, Terry O'Connor and J.A. Baker, with John Lane using the red-shouldered hawks that live in his neighborhood to explore the concept of 'commensalism,' the idea that two species can live near each other without harming or benefitting the other. John journals about his neighborhood hawks for a year, documenting their lives and contemplating the relationship between animals and humans when they live in such close proximity.
John Lane is a professor of English and environmental studies at Wofford College. His books include Waist Deep in Black Water, Chattooga: Descending into the Myth of Deliverance River, Circling Home, and My Paddle to the Sea (all Georgia). He also coedited, with Gerald Thurmond, The Woods Stretched for Miles: New Nature Writing from the South (also Georgia). He has published several volumes of poetry, essays, and a novel, as well as a selection of his online columns, The Best of the Kudzu Telegraph.
"John Lane's adoring obsessions show us how wildness dwells on the edges of suburbia – and how it thrives within the spirit of a feral poet."
– Drew Lanham author of Sparrow Envy and The Home Place