H. Emerson Blake is the editor-in-chief at Orion Magazine, executive director of the Orion Society

Orion Society

The Orion Society is a United States non-profit organization that engages environmental and cultural issues through publication of books, magazines, and educational materials, and facilitation of informational networks. It was founded in 1992 and is based in Great Barrington, Massachusetts...

, former editor-in-chief at Milkweed Editions

Milkweed Editions

Milkweed Editions is an independent, non-profit publishing company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Milkweed's goal is to make a positive impact on society through the transformative art of literature. Milkweed is sometimes called the largest independent, non-profit literary publisher in the United...

, editor of many books, and an ecologist. He has served as a visiting faculty member at Sterling College

Sterling College (Vermont)

Sterling College is a college in Craftsbury Common, Vermont, known as the smallest accredited four-year college in the country. Sterling is one of seven colleges in the Work College Consortium. The school is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges...

.

Biography

Blake is originally from Philadelphia. He received his bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 from the University of Colorado

University of Colorado at Boulder

The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...

 and finished his graduate work at Antioch University New England

Antioch University New England

Antioch University New England is a private graduate school located in Keene, New Hampshire. It is part of the Antioch University system that includes campuses in Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; Santa Barbara, California; and Yellow Springs, Ohio.- History :In 1964, Antioch College...

. While at Antioch he helped found Whole Terrain

Whole Terrain

Whole Terrain: Journal of Reflective Environmental Practice is an environmentally-themed literary journal that's published approximately once a year by Antioch University New England . Each volume explores emerging ecological and social issues from the perspectives of practitioners working in the...

 and edited the first volume on the them of Environmental

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

 Identity and Professional Choices (1992).

Though he studied ecology, Blake has been ensconced in the world of small publishing, editing

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

, and nature writing

Nature writing

Nature writing is generally defined as nonfiction prose writing about the natural environment. Nature writing often draws heavily on scientific information and facts about the natural world; at the same time, it is frequently written in the first person and incorporates personal observations of and...

. He was hired in 1992 at Orion Magazine as associate editor and continued as managing editor until 2003. When Milkweed Editions co-founder Emilie Buchwald retired in 2003, Blake took over as editor-in-chief of the small publishing company. In June 2005, Blake returned to take his current post as editor-in-chief of Orion Magazine and executive director of the Orion Society, moving on from Milkweed for personal reasons.

Books and essays he has edited have been nominated and won many awards including the National Magazine Award

National Magazine Award

The National Magazine Awards are a series of US awards that honor excellence in the magazine industry. They are administered by the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City...

, the Pushcart Prize

Pushcart Prize

The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....

, the PEN Literary Award, the John Oakes Award in Environmental Journalism, the Minnesota Book Award, the Oregon Book Award

Oregon Book Award

The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by Literary Arts, Inc. for "the finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, drama and young readers literature." -History:...

, and The New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He has served as a judge for the Phil Reed Writing Award alongside Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Her primary focus is on the individual and the power one has to make a difference in oneself and in the lives of others. Giovanni’s poetry expresses strong racial pride, respect for family, and her...

, Janisse Ray

Janisse Ray

Janisse Ray is an American writer, naturalist, and environmental activist.She attended North Georgia College, 1980–82; Florida State University, B.A., 1984; and the University of Montana, M.F.A., 1997....

, Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben

William Ernest "Bill" McKibben is an American environmentalist, author, and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College...

, Wilma Dykeman

Wilma Dykeman

Wilma Dykeman Stokely was an American writer of fiction and nonfiction whose works chronicled the people and land of Appalachia.-Biography:...

, and Jan DeBlieu

Jan DeBlieu

Jan DeBlieu is an American writer whose work often focuses on how people are shaped by the landscapes in which they live. Her own writing has been influenced by her adopted home in the Outer Banks of North Carolina....

.

Blake resides in Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Great Barrington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,104 at the 2010 census. Both a summer resort and home to Ski Butternut, Great Barrington includes the villages of Van...

, living with his wife and son in a self-described "tiny house."

External links

• Welcome to Whole Terrain by H. Emerson Blake, published in Whole Terrain
  Whole Terrain
  Whole Terrain: Journal of Reflective Environmental Practice is an environmentally-themed literary journal that's published approximately once a year by Antioch University New England . Each volume explores emerging ecological and social issues from the perspectives of practitioners working in the...
  
  , Volume 1
• Whole Terrain link to Blake articles published in Whole Terrain
  Whole Terrain
  Whole Terrain: Journal of Reflective Environmental Practice is an environmentally-themed literary journal that's published approximately once a year by Antioch University New England . Each volume explores emerging ecological and social issues from the perspectives of practitioners working in the...