Books by Thomas Dean
Tallgrass Conversations: In Search of the Prairie Spirit. Coauthored with Cindy Crosby. 2019. Order here from Ice Cube Press.
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Poetic, beautiful, meditative, and informative. Through short writings and photographs, Cindy Crosby and Thomas Dean enter a conversation to inspire new understandings of the Midwestern tallgrass prairie with word and image. Tallgrass Conversations encourages looking and listening to the prairie through the heart and mind as well as eyes, ears, and other senses, advancing both conservation and creative efforts on behalf of the tallgrass prairie. A superb look at how to best learn to live with the tallgrass prairie, or anywhere you call home.
Under a Midland Sky. 2008. Order here from Ice Cube Press.
In the middle of the middle land in the United States we have the greatest variety of weather possible: four distinct seasons, temperatures that plunge below zero by the double digits and escalate into triple digits, placid zephyrs and brutal tornadoes, gentle spring rains and mountains of snow, the crispness of autumn air and the saturation of summer humidity. The wide sky of the Midwest allows us to see this atmospheric drama play out its comedies and tragedies in full view and full vigor. Under this midland sky we play out our lives in place. A resounding collection of essays that teach us how to call our place on earth our home.
"Thomas Dean's beautifully written memoir is a moving journey through the author's personal life and its continued relationship to the landscape he accepts and honors....The book is, finally, a testament to living fully, accepting both the pain and beauty of one's daily life against a Midwest landscape that is often a major player." —Jim Heynen, author, Sunday Afternoon on the Porch: Reflections of a Small Town in Iowa, 1939-1942
"Contrary to the notion that earlier Midwestern meteorologist Robert Zimmerman promoted, Thomas Dean is indeed the weatherman you need to know to know which way the wind blows....Dean writes with gusts of gusto, fronts of high pressure, heaps of heart." —Michael Martone, author, Racing in Place and The Flatness and Other Landscapes
The Grace of Grass and Water: Writing in Honor of Paul Gruchow.
Edited with an introduction by Thomas Dean. 2007. Order here from Ice Cube Press.
The late Minnesota author Paul Gruchow was often described as beautifully intense, bard-like and prophetic. While plying his talents as seer and naturalist, Gruchow was also a master of trenchant insight into the right ways of living, as well as the foibles and hypocrisies of modern society. This collection honors the memory of Paul Gruchow through the words of the many he touched as mentor, teacher, colleague, friend as well as some of the last published writing by both Bill Holm and Carol Bly.
The Grace of Grass and Water brings together new writings by award-winning authors Mary Pipher, Bill Holm, Carol Bly, Jim Heynen, Mark Vinz, Gary Deason, Louis Martintelli, Bob Artley and Thomas Dean as well as one of Paul Gruchow’s last essays.
"Beloved in his home place, Paul Gruchow deserves to be known far and wide, and this lovely volume makes clear exactly why." —Bill McKibben, author, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
"As these essays reveal, Paul Gruchow was a brilliant writer and a profound thinker who never failed to amaze his friends and acquaintances with his wisdom and kindness. Gruchow’s work—like his life—resonates with passion and intensity....He was our generation’s Thoreau. The Grace of Grass and Water is a deeply moving and fitting tribute to the man and his work." —Thom Tammaro, coeditor, Imagining Home: Writing from the Midwest
"We are fortunate Paul Gruchow was a writer, for America stands in dire need of his vision and understanding. This collection of beautiful essays will serve as an invaluable introduction to the complicated life of a true American hero." —Paul Theobald, author, Teaching the Commons: Place, Pride, and the Renewal of Community