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Northland student publishes book as capstone project

April 2, 2009

For most college students final projects involve a little research and a few long nights in the library, but for Cori Stanek, a senior at Northland College, things were a little bit more involved. For her senior

capstone Stanek compiled and published "In My Place: Voices of People & Land," a nearly 300 page book inspired by the National Public Radio series "This I Believe." A community writing project, the book contains essays from more than 90 authors focused on the relationships between people and their landscape.

Northland will host a presentation by Stanek to celebrate the release of the book on Monday, April 6. The event will be held in the Student Lounge in the basement of the Ponzio Campus Center beginning at 7 p.m. and will be open to the public free of charge. Copies of "In My Place" will be available at the event for $10 and refreshments will be served.

"When I first set out to organize 'In My Place,' relationships were what I was after," writes Stanek in the introduction to the book. "I wanted to define the relationships that exist between humans and the natural world, to know how people interact with the land around them and how landscapes become a part of lives, livelihoods, and families." To do this Stanek contacted more than 350 writers asking them to submit a short essay (300-600 words) about what guides their relationship to the landscape. By the January 15 deadline, she had received 94 submissions from 12 states that represent at least seven distinctly different eco-systems cross the nation.

Stanek then edited the submissions, wrote the introduction, and began the long process of laying out the book page by page. By Mid-March, the final book went to print and copies are now available. For Stanek the project represents not only the culmination of her work as an Environmental Studies major at Northland, but also the meeting of her passions in the arts, community organizing and the natural world.