Dave Aftandilian

In any given year, in the spring and fall, some 7 million birds representing 300 different species migrate through the city of Chicago. They come for great architecture, cuisine, song, views, and flyways—creating their own urban nature. They alight our forest preserves, our lakefront paths, and the minds and hearts of citizens and students through the urban region. Chicago has gone to extensive lengths as a city to aid its finned, feathered, scaled, and furry animals enjoy the city as much as its bipedal inhabitants. Chicago is “Nature's Metropolis. Nature lovers, amateur naturalists, community organizers, urban agriculturalists, social workers, and concerned citizens have always been part of the fabric of the city. Chicago Creatures aims to animate this natural world of the Chicago region, using stories, poems, and art to show how the vibrancy of nature in Chicago runs like a rhizome throughout our collective experience as urban naturalists. Recognizing the stories have often the best means of reaching readers, the essays in this volume tell stories about urban nature, and so too do the poems, and paintings, and photos. We see in these various creative forms how nature inspires, and holds meaning, even in an urban wilderness, and perhaps because of the urbanity of it all in some cases. The pieces are organized thematically, around the types of places and encounters readers would have with urban nature. The ultimate hope is that in learning about the animals of the city readers will think more about their conservation and longevity. And while the experiences might be local, the messages in this book are born to fly.

Dave Aftandilian

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