University of Montana professor, acclaimed poet, and river guide Chris Dombrowski has written a candid, nonlinear memoir. The River You Touch is a personal guide like no other through Missoula and the Bitterroot Valley—a lyrical, visually rich, once-in-a-lifetime river trip, one in which photos alone can’t capture the magic.

Pushcart Prize and Whiting Award-winning author Amy Leach uses silliness to address the profound, in a similar way to the beloved childhood book Where the Sidewalk Ends but with an adult twist. Amid the humor, though, this set of nature essays, The Everybody Ensemble: Donkeys, Essays, and Other Pandemoniums, often brings on a contemplative pause. At times, Leach mixes animals and politics but not in an environmental activist style.