# The Quickening: Antarctica, Motherhood, and Cultivating Hope in a Warming World - Hardcover

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by **Elizabeth Rush** (Author)

**An NPR Best Book of the Year**  
**Winner of the CLMP Firecracker Award in Creative Nonfiction**

**"**_**The Quickening**_ **is a book of hope."--Elizabeth Kolbert, author of** _**Under a White Sky**_

**An astonishing, vital work about Antarctica, climate change, and community.**

In 2019, fifty-seven scientists and crew set out onboard the _Nathaniel B. Palmer_. Their destination: the ominous Thwaites Glacier at Antarctica's western edge. Their goal: to learn as much as possible about this mysterious place, never before visited by humans. And with them is author Elizabeth Rush, who seeks, among other things, the elusive voice of the ice.

Rush shares her story of a groundbreaking voyage punctuated by both the sublime--the tangible consequences of our melting icecaps; the staggering waves of the Drake Passage; the torqued, unfamiliar contours of Thwaites--and the everyday moments of living and working in community. A ping-pong tournament at sea. Long hours in the lab. All the effort that goes into caring for the human and more-than-human worlds. Along the way, Rush takes readers on a personal journey around a more intimate question: What does it mean to create and celebrate life in a time of radical planetary change?

What emerges is a new kind of Antarctica story, one preoccupied not with flag planting and heroism but with the collective and challenging work of imagining a better future. With understanding the language of a continent where humans have only been present for two centuries. With the contributions and concerns of women, who were largely excluded from voyages until the last few decades, and of crew members of color, whose labor has often gone unrecognized. Urgent, brave, and vulnerable, _The Quickening_ is an absorbing account of hope from one of our most celebrated and treasured contemporary authors.

### Author Biography

Elizabeth Rush is the author of _The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth_ and _Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore_, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Rush's work has appeared in a wide range of publications from the _New York Times_ to _Orion_ and _Guernica_. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Howard Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the Metcalf Institute. She lives with her husband and son in Providence, Rhode Island, where she teaches creative nonfiction at Brown University.

**Number of Pages:** 424

**Dimensions:** 1.4 x 8.6 x 5.7 IN

**Publication Date:** August 15, 2023

## Details

- **Price:** 30.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 30.00 USD | In stock |

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- The Quickening: Antarctica, Motherhood, and Cultivating Hope in a Warming World - Hardcover

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