Pingry Creates

Chris Hoffman ’65, ecopsychologist, poet, and climate activist, has published his fourth book of poetry, Son of the Earth (self-published); his poetry speaks of nature, love, intimacy, and the spiritual quest. Now retired, Mr. Hoffman devotes most of his time to writing and to volunteering for social justice and a livable climate.

One reviewer on Amazon wrote, “Legendary environmentalist Rachael Carson said that a ‘sense of wonder and humility’ would save the earth. Humility and wonder are a perfect description of the poems of Son of the Earth . . . Reflecting Hoffman’s Ecopsychology theory developed in his non-fiction book The Hoop and the Tree, these accessible, easy-to-understand, humble, wonderful poems are ideal to use in personal growth, in ecopsychology and ecospiritual practice, and as a resource for environmental communications and climate activism.”

Elif Batuman ’95 is the author of the book Either/Or (Penguin Press), a sequel to her first novel, The Idiot, which was nominated for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize. Either/Or continues the protagonist Selin’s quest for selfknowledge as she travels abroad and tests the limits of her newfound adulthood. NPR says, “The lively, witty, inquisitive protagonist Selin is just as curious about ‘the human condition’ as she was in the first novel [and] continues to muse about every choice she makes, comparing herself to literary characters and thinking deeply about her identity as a writer.”

COVER: PENGUIN PRESS

An article by Archivist Peter Blasevick appears in the May/June 2022 issue of Archival Outlook (Society of American Archivists); this is Mr. Blasevick’s third article for the magazine. In it, he details the efforts to embed Pingry history in the Upper School building’s redesigned interior, beginning with four* wall displays: Pingry People Through the Years; a celebration of the Hillside Campus; student awards; and faculty awards (these walls are also featured in the Winter 2021-22 issue of The Pingry Review).

*Since this article was published, a fifth display was added, for the Letter-In-Life Award (pictured on the back cover of this issue).

“Enough is enough,” declares journalist Chloe Sorvino ’11, a staff writer at Forbes who leads the magazine’s coverage of food, drink, and agriculture. “There’s not enough time to push off environmental commitments years into the future or throw money at the wrong potential solutions. The meat industry’s overdue reckoning is here. Major change is needed, but it just might be possible with more coordination, better financial structures, and transparency.” This is the motivation behind her first book, Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat (Simon and Schuster), which she says could be a timely read for classes examining policy, business, history, or climate change.

According to the publisher, Raw Deal is an “exposé of the United States meat industry, the devastating failures of the country’s food system, and the growing disappointment of alternative meat producers claiming to revolutionize the future of food . . . Chloe Sorvino presents an expansive view of the meat industry and its future as its fundamental weaknesses are laid bare for all to see. With unprecedented access and in-depth research, Raw Deal investigates corporate greed, how climate change will upend our food production, and the limitations of local movements challenging the status quo.” Publishers Weekly calls it “a deeply informed and eye-opening call for change.” Former Upper School English Teacher Dean Sluyter P ’90, ’98 has written his sixth book, The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature: Finding Nirvana in the Classics (New World Library; as of June, the book was No. 1 on Amazon’s list of best sellers in high school). Drawing heavily on his 33 years of teaching English 10, American Literature, and meditation, and developing Pingry’s Literature of Enlightenment program, the book reveals how various literary works teach awakening. As he writes in the Introduction, Mr. Sluyter focuses on Western literature that people read in high school or college.*

“When you teach Shakespeare and Salinger and Emily Dickinson for 33 years,” he says, “you start making connections. I was already a meditation teacher when I arrived, and was pretty steeped in both Eastern and Western enlightenment traditions, so it’s natural that those were the connections I made.”

* The chapter on Waiting for Godot includes a footnote about former student Buzzy Cohen ’03 competing in the Jeopardy! Tournament of

Champions, when Beckett’s play helped propel him to success.