Nature writer Katie Fallon has signed a contract with Ruka Press® to publish her first full-length book, Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird. She is the third author signed by Ruka Press®, and publication is planned for Fall 2011.

Cerulean Blues describes the plight of the cerulean warbler, a tiny migratory songbird, and its struggle to survive in ever-shrinking bands of suitable habitat. This elusive creature, a favorite among bird watchers and the fastest-declining warbler species in the United States, has lost 3% of its total population each year since 1966. This precipitous decline means that today there are 80% fewer ceruleans than 40 years ago, and their numbers continue to drop due to threats including deforestation, global warming, and an ecologically devastating practice—mountaintop removal coal mining—that affects not only the cerulean warbler but all residents of the Appalachian mountains, including humans.

With both scientific rigor and a sense of wonder, Fallon leads readers on a journey of more than two thousand miles—from the top of the forest canopy in the ancient mountains of Appalachia to a coffee plantation near troubled Bogotá, Colombia—and shows how the fate of a creature weighing less than an ounce is vitally linked to our own.

Cerulean Blues will appeal to nature lovers, bird watchers, actual and armchair adventurers, and anyone interested in the health and future of our planet.

Fallon’s nonfiction has appeared in a variety of magazines and journals, including Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing, Appalachian Heritage, and River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative. Her essay, “Lost,” published in the journal The Fourth River, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2008. Fallon teaches creative writing at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. She is represented by Russell Galen at Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency.

In keeping with the book’s environmental consciousness and Ruka Press®â€™s philosophy, Cerulean Blues will be published on 100% recycled paper, as well as in appropriate e-book editions. We’re very excited about this addition to our growing list of eco-friendly titles. Katie’s book furthers the very finest traditions in nature writing. Like Rachel Carson and Bill Bryson before her, she makes an esoteric subject come alive for the lay reader.

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