Maryann Lesert joins the Spotlight to chat about her latest novel, Land Marks

Author Name: Maryann Lesert

Book Title: Land Marks

Book Genre: Eco-fiction

Release Date: April 16

Publisher: She Writes Press

Welcome, Maryann! How would you describe Land Marks?

I think this one-liner best captures may characters’ motivations and my reason for writing: “Once you experience the devastation of fracking, nothing but stopping it makes sense.”

What sparked the idea for this book?

In the early to mid-2010s, fracking (deep shale horizontal, hydraulic fracturing) came to Michigan’s state forests, and I set out to learn as much as I could. After two years of some intense, “boots-on-well-sites” research, I learned a lot about drilling and fracking, the science behind the chemicals used and the risks, and the extreme water withdrawals.

I wrote “get the word out” articles, but what I really wanted to write was the sensory story of fracking – what it smelled and sounded and felt like to experience that level of industrial might in the middle of the forest. I met so many people who were living with fracking, people I deeply admired for their tenacity and their hope, and I felt honored that they trusted me to tell their stories.

I also wanted to tell a story of solidarity and resistance. When Michiganders learned about the rather “secret” fracking that was happening in our state forests, the people showed up! Water well drillers, doctors, lawyers, musicians, Indigenous community members, students, teachers—people gathered together and accomplished amazing feats, and our voting records or our personal histories weren’t primary to our efforts to protect place. Instead, we found common ground (water, land, and air) and we worked tirelessly, together.

How long did it take for you to write the book? Did you do any research?

The research for this novel was incredible. I’ve always loved learning and how research enables a writer to live a different life, so to speak. For two years, I was immersed in science, in frack well site visits, in public meetings and protests. Then, when I knew I wanted to write a novel, I retreated from that “outer” energy and began to listen to a more inward, reflective, story-telling energy.

What drew you to writing eco-fiction?

I have always been deeply inspired by and connected to the natural world. There is so much wisdom about what it means to be “present” in a forest, in a river, in the patterns of a rock made from the creative forces of the world.

The activist author Derrick Jensen once interviewed environmental ethicist and writer Kathleen Dean Moore, and Moore offered a phrase that I think is perfect for describing how I feel about knowing a place. She called our obligation to place “the ecology of love.”

When you love a place, sharing that love with readers is, I hope, inspiration for all of us to connect or reconnect with our places.

What’s your favorite part about writing/being an author? What do you find challenging?

Solitude! I am a solitude seeker. I love hiking in the woods, alone. I love staying at a favorite retreat center in a tiny cabin, alone. But I also love sharing special moments with others. So, it’s a challenge for me to balance my desire for solitude with my need to share special moments and places with others.

One of my favorite partners in solitude was Denver, a Wheaton Terrier who was with us for fourteen years. Denver and I spent a lot of “deck time” together, him surveying the premises and me getting lost in my journal.

What do you hope readers will take away from this story?

Overall, Land Marks is a story of coming together. It’s about the joy of standing up and saying “No more!” to any new fossil fuel infrastructure.

Climate change and the ecological losses we have already experienced may feel overwhelming. Threats to our future may seem like they call for special people called “heroes” and “activists,” but Land Marks offers a different solution – a group of creative, imperfect locals coming together to protect place.

Instead of romanticizing activists as special people, I want readers to understand how powerful we are when we stand together. There are no special “gifts” needed. All we really need to do is to care and to share that caring, instead of rationalizing our caring away.

Any words of wisdom you give your pre-published writer self (or to a new writer)?

I’ll share what I tell my creative writing students at the college where I teach.

“Be the strongest you that you can be.”

As writers or creatives in any art form, we constantly compare our work and levels of success with other artists. But in order to create strong, vivid, authentic work, we need to tap into what is the most particular about ourselves.

So, this is my go-to saying and something I remind myself to do, often.

I bet you, Sarahlyn, have a few favorite writing teacher sayings of your own.

Ha, yes indeed. Are you working on a new project? Please tell us about it. 

My next novel is a story of grief and deep friendship, probably fueled by my own sense of eco-grief when it comes to ecological loss. It’s a story that illustrates the idea that damage to the natural world also damages us. But it’s also a story infused with hope—the hope that comes from deep connections to place and to each other.

Where can readers find you?

I have a schedule of in-person local and regional events, beginning with a book launch party on April 16 and currently running through September.

I also post virtual events and recordings whenever they’re available.

Feel free to connect with me via my author website: maryannlesert.com

or on Facebook: facebook.com/maryannlesert.

Thank you, Maryann! Land Marks is out now.

Land Marks

Once you’ve experienced the devastation of fracking, nothing but stopping it makes sense. After a year of well site visits and protests, four college student activists become determined to protect the people and the places they love.

In the river-crossed northwoods of Michigan, Kate, Brett, Sonya, and Mark, mentored by their former professor Rebecca, keep watch as North American Energy (NorA) connects a corridor of frack well sites deep in the state forests. When NorA expands in unexpected directions and their awful, bigger plan becomes clear, the action begins.

As grassroots activists gather and prepare to stop NorA’s dangerous superfrac, stresses other than the fracturing of the bedrock appear. Sonya is arrested, Rebecca reveals her hidden past, and the one person who knows both women’s stories arrives in camp. Love and solidarity want to win, even if most showdowns with Big Oil don’t end well for those who take a stand.

Suspenseful, poignant, and galvanizing, Land Marks is a tribute to the waterways that connect us, the land that sustains us, and the moments that inspire us to rise up together to say, “No more!”

Author bio:

Maryann Lesert writes about people and place in equal measure. Her first novel, Base Ten (Feminist Press, 2009), featured an astrophysicist’s quest for self among Lake Michigan’s forested dunes and the stars. Before novels, Maryann wrote plays, including three full-lengths, five one-acts, and collaborations with a memoirist and a local symphony. Maryann lives in west Michigan, where she teaches writing, enjoys time in the natural world (shared with family and friends), and writes by the big lake.