On the Shoreline of Knowledge: Irish Wanderings by essayist Chris Arthur will become available Aug. 15 from the Sightline Books series of the University of Iowa Press.

Chris Arthur

The carefully crafted, meditative essays in On the Shoreline of Knowledge sometimes start from unlikely objects or thoughts—a pencil or some fragments of commonplace conversation—but they soon lead the reader to consider fundamental themes in human experience.

Bringing a diverse range of material into play, from 15th-century Japanese Zen Buddhism to how we look at paintings, from the nature of a briefcase to the ancient nest-sites of gyrfalcons, Arthur reveals the extraordinary dimensions woven invisibly into the ordinary things around us.

Arthur speaks with an Irish accent, rooting the book in his own unique vision of the world, but he addresses elemental issues of life and death, love and loss, that circle the world and entwine us all.

Robert Atwan, the editor of the Best American Essays series, wrote, “Chris Arthur is among the very best essayists in the English language today. He is ever mindful of the genre’s long literary tradition and understands—as did his great predecessors—that the genuine essay is grounded in the imagination, in our quest for art and beauty, as deeply as is poetry or painting. Every young writer who wants to experience the creative possibilities of the essay form must read Chris Arthur—it isn’t an option.”

Arthur has published several books of essays, including Irish Nocturnes, Irish Willow, Irish Haiku, Irish Elegies, and Words of the Grey Wind.

Sightline Books: The Iowa Series in Literary Nonfiction, edited by Patricia Hampl and Carl H. Klaus, specializes in exceptional literary nonfiction. The titles in this series range from cultural commentary, nature writing, and historical inquiry to meditation, memoir, and narratively or thematically linked personal essays by emerging as well as established authors.

In Klaus’ words, “Sightline Books is a series of works that embody the richly varied knowledge, artfully crafted prose, and compelling authorial presence that characterize the most engaging contemporary nonfiction.”

The book will be available at bookstores or from the UI Press, 800-621-2736 or www.uiowapress.org. Customers in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa may order from Eurospan Group at www.eurospanbookstore.com.