Introduction: the Nature of Literature Peter Remien and Scott Slovic; Part I. Origins: 1. The book of nature Rebecca Davis; 2. Pastoral Terry Gifford; 3. Wilderness Debbie Lee; 4. Lucretian materialism Brent Dawson; 5. Natural philosophy Mary Thomas Crane; 6. Natural history Ashton Nichols; Part II. Development: 7. Romantic nature Marc Cladis; 8. The sublime Michele Speitz; 9. Toward a transatlantic philosophy of nature Samantha Harvey; 10. Indigenous naturecultures Rayson K. Alex; 11. Postcolonial nature Philip Aghoghovwia; 12. Extinction Timothy Sweet; 13. Nature in the Anthropocene Ken Hiltner; Part III. Applications: 14. Nature, gender, sexuality Greta Gaard; 15. Nature and race John Gamber; 16. The nature of animality Michael Lundblad; 17. Cultivating nature Shiuhhuah Serena Chou; 18. Narrating nature Erin James; 19. Digital nature Lai-Tze Fan; 20. Toxic nature Pramod K. Nayar; 21. Messages from within Serenella Iovino.