Reading Across R.I. picks local Pulitzer finalist's book

"Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore" has been selected as the focus of Reading Across Rhode Island, a program that encourages all Rhode Islanders to read the same book and participate in related community events.

"Rising," by Rhode Island resident Elizabeth Rush, who teaches creative nonfiction at Brown University, is the winner of the 2018 National Outdoor Book Award, in the Natural History Literature category, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

In the book, Rush writes about the places in the United States that are facing the most dramatic impacts from climate change. It weaves testimonials from those who face those impacts with profiles of wildlife biologists and activists.

Readers are invited to join Rush, as well as Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit, from 2 to 4 p.m. on Jan. 26 at Save the Bay, 100 Save The Bay Drive, in Providence, for an introduction to the book's themes. Registration is at ribook.org.

Rush will also appear at Salve Regina University, in Newport, on April 2. Additional events will be posted at ribook.org.

Reading Across Rhode Island is a program of the Rhode Island Center for the Book. This year's honorary program co-chairs are Coit and Mark Searles, chief meteorologist at Channel 10.