The first book-length collection of scholarship that applies interdisciplinary environmental humanities research to cultural analyses of the US South. Sixteen essays examine novels, nature writing, films, television, and music that address a broad range of ecological topics related to the region.

"Ecocriticism and the Future of Southern Studies is an edict nailed to the door of southern studies that challenges the field to embrace manmade environmental issues that threaten our region. In his eloquent introduction, Zackary Vernon details the urgency of this moment, and sixteen essays apply the field of environmental studies to southern coal and oil 'hazardscapes, ' roads, farms, and waterways with disturbing power. Together, their voices open the door for the greening of southern studies as they connect the field with environmental studies and reveal a powerful new intellectual terrain. Ecocriticism and the Future of Southern Studies is a landmark study that is essential reading for all who care about the American South." --William Ferris, author of The South in Color: A Visual Journal

"Zackary Vernon has assembled an insightful collection of essays written at the intersection of environmental studies and literary criticism, examining human interaction with the natural world, keenly aware of a southern environmental precariousness, and delivered with a sense of justified urgency. An important step in the direction of the greening of southern studies." --Fred Hobson, Lineberger Distinguished Professor in the Humanities Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill