Deborah Cramer will speak at the Newburyport Literary Festival on April 25th, in Newburyport, Mass.
In addition to Cramer, on the roster for this year's festival are literary luminaries from every genre. To name just a few, this includes Anita Shreve, Julia Alverez, Elinor Lipman, Richard Bausch, Peter Orner, Lewis Turco, Anne Easter Smith, David Crouse, Junot Diaz, and Andre Dubus III.
In a section excerpted from Smithsonian Ocean, Deborah Cramer observes how carbon—one of the building blocks of life—links us to the planet's past:
"Carbon is the foundation of life. It exists in every living organism, in every cell. While some is stilled, preserved in fossils over long stretches of time, most is continually recycled.... Humans are mostly water and, after that, carbon—carbon that has been passed down through the ages, from the flesh of a fish, the ear of an elephant, the leaves of a plant. Somewhere in each of us is a cell whose carbon elements may have nourished the planet's nascent life."
Holiday shopping got you anxious?
USA Today comes to the rescue with a handy gift guide that will satisfy all your bookworm friends, from the fashionista to the animal lover. For the environmentalist in your life, this holiday season's "it" book is Deborah Cramer's Smithsonian Ocean.
Commissioned as a companion to the National Museum of Natural History's new, permanent Ocean Hall, this book is much more than a souvenir. Beautifully and copiously illustrated and featuring extensive easy-to-understand, well-written text, it tells the full story of Earth's oceans, within which life developed and upon which all life still ultimately depends. Cramer (Great Waters: An Atlantic Passage) follows a time line from the beginnings of the earth to the present day and explains what we must do to preserve the ocean's resources. Twenty-eight ocean and themed maps (including coral reefs and hydrothermal vents) are included; the bibliography lists both journal articles and books and is extensive enough to keep an interested reader busy for years.
The Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, which opens on Saturday, isn’t just about 71 percent of the Earth’s surface. It is the largest renovation in the museum’s century-long history and a transformation of its largest exhibition space, making it as much about the museum’s future as about the ocean’s.
Yes, of course, water takes center stage. When you enter the new hall off the Beaux Arts rotunda, the dimmed, atmospheric lighting is meant to suggest the sea; an illuminated blue panel coaxes: “Dive in. Discover it with us.” And well above floor level are eight giant video screens showing schools of fish and sea creatures near Belize, the Galápagos Islands and other aquatic utopias pulsing with oceanic life. It is as if the entire 23,000-square-foot exhibition space were submerged in a giant natural aquarium...
There is room for improvement, of course. In some galleries explanations could be clearer. And the museum could have been more imaginative in some expositions, the way Deborah Cramer so often is in her inspiring companion volume to the hall, “Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water, Our World.”
But so much can be learned here, and the new model of the museum is so well integrated with the valuable parts of the old that the Ocean Hall makes the sea change in museum life look promising.
Submission Guidelines
The Strothman Agency seeks out scholars, journalists, and other acknowledged and emerging experts in their fields.
We specialize in narrative non-fiction, memoir, history, science and nature, arts and culture, literary travel, current affairs, and some business. We have a highly selective practice in literary fiction and smart self-help. We are now opening our doors to more commercial fiction but ONLY from authors who have a platform. If you have a platform, please mention it in your query letter.
Browse the Latest News to get an idea of the types of books that we represent. For more about what we're looking for, read Pitching an Agent: The Strothman Agency on the publishing website mediabistro.com.
To submit your material, please send the following by regular mail:
A query letter outlining your qualifications and experience.
A synopsis of your work.
A self-addressed stamped envelope.
Please do not send entire manuscripts unless requested. We do not accept or respond to queries via e-mail or fax.
The Strothman Agency does not charge a reading fee, and every submission is read and considered. Due to the volume of submissions we receive, please allow three to four weeks for a response.
The Strothman Agency is a member of the Association of Authors' Representatives and the Authors Guild.
