Entomophagy Anthropology
JULIE LESNIK
Associate Professor
Dept of Anthropology
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI
  • Home
  • About Julie
  • Blog
  • Potential Grad Students
  • Conference
  • Contact
  • Homework Help
  • Press
  • Links
  • Photos

Published!  Edible Insects and Human Evolution

7/17/2018

0 Comments

 
Although people have been slowly receiving their pre-ordered books in the mail, July 17 is the official publication date of Edible Insects and Human Evolution!  It's been more than five years since its conception and now my book is finally out for the world to see.  
Picture







​Friends have been sending me pictures of my book as they receive it! <3

There has been some great online media to go along with the book release.  Each piece has something unique and I think they all work well together to fully paint the picture on what the book's about.

First, NPR covered it yesterday (in print, not audio.. you can read it here).  I had a wonderful conversation with Paul Chrisholm (who has a background in entomology!) and I think the piece turned out great.  I could have done without the photo of bugs hanging out of someone's mouth, but sensationalism is the name of the game with the media, so I can't pretend to be surprised.

Entomofago, which is based in the EU, is the first international media group to focus entirely on edible insects.  They published an interview with me on their blog (available here).  It's a nice little piece that asks a bit more about how I got interested in the topic and why I decided to write a book.

​Lastly, my publisher, University Press of Florida, asked me to write a blog post (here) to accompany the book's release.  They wanted a little bit of a "behind the scenes" feel to the post so I decided to try to show how I work with many different sources of information in order to reconstruct this part of the diet in the past.  

I have some radio interviews coming up and expect there to be some more online articles going around.  I am very pleased with the reception of the book's release.   I am working hard to push away the negative thoughts that this will all change once people have read it!  
0 Comments

Tackling the Book Monster

6/3/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
From Creepy Crawly Creations
I have been "writing" a book for some time now.  Once I got my job at Wayne State, my editor automatically extended the deadline in my contract by a year so that I could take the necessary time to get settled.  This adjustment also allowed me to make negotiations to have teaching release in the upcoming fall term so that I can more fully focus on the book.  The book is also my biggest summer project, so now the real writing is upon me.  It is time to remind myself of all that I have learned about the process and the different mantras that I want to hold dear.

"You already wrote a dissertation.  This is so much better than your dissertation."
  • When thinking about how to tackle such a big writing project, I tend to remind myself that I have technically written a book already.  It is then so much better when I remember that THIS book is one I actually want to write.  I WANT this information out there.  I have a bit of an empty feeling when I think about the fact that this book does not exist yet.  This feeling is completely opposite of what I felt when writing my dissertation.  The dissertation for me was red tape.  The results of my research were not exciting, so I had little interest in writing them up.  I truly believe that no results are still results and in the name of science, that is still information worth sharing, but it's not fun  I wanted to share sexy results.  I didn't really have them.  And even the little bits of my dissertation that I was proud of, I wasn't really "putting them out there" until they were transformed and published in academic journals.  Those papers were considerably more enjoyable to write than the dissertation itself.  So now I have this book that is all about how I have personally processed and interpreted all the information out there that I could find on the topic, and I am going to share it with my audience so that I can let them know why I am convinced insects were important in the hominid diet, and maybe by the end of it, some of the readers will be convinced, too.  I WANT this book to exist, and it won't happen if I don't put in the effort.
"Forgive yourself for oversights and bad writing."
  • Editing, editing, editing.  That's the real name of the game.  But if there is nothing produced, there is nothing to edit.  It is still so hard for me to put something down "on paper" for anyone to see before I am happy with it.  I fear that my logic in early drafts is flawed or incoherent and I will look stupid.  I fear that I missed citing a critical piece of research and I will offend someone.  I fear all sorts of things, and it becomes crippling.  But then I saw these "3 stages of editing."  They make complete sense.  So why would I try to make something pristine before I started making macro edits?  That's a waste of time.  The new goal is just to spill out an entire draft of the book so that the vision is apparent.  Then I can reorganize and clean it up.
Picture
"Write like a motherf*cker."
  • This advice comes from Karen Kelsky of the Professor Is In where she blogs about a piece by Rebecca Schumann.  The take home message is "Write like a motherf*cker.  Or, in other words, declare independence from dependence on external validation."  I need to just figure out a way to just put the information out there with no inhibitions.  BOOM! That's what I think about the mechanisms of evolution.  BOOM!  That's what I think about diet and evolution.  WHABAM!  Entomophagy is important.
Picture
Writing Routines/Writing Retreats
  • As much as I know that I should establish a routine, writing first thing in the morning, prioritizing it over everything else, that has not happened yet.  I am not fully into this project enough to not get distracted by every other little thing.  I know it can happen, I have found that groove before.  I have to write in my pajamas with bedhead and sleep in my eyes because as soon as I take a shower and start getting ready for the day, the power has shifted to prioritizing something else over my writing.  
Picture
  • That's why I decided I need writing retreats.  Yes, plural.  I need to get away from the distractions of my life in Detroit and be somewhere else.  I also need to be somewhere that will help me hold a good routine and keep me accountable of my productivity.  In trying to think of where this could possibly be, I was reminded of how productive I become when I am "in the field."  Most often, my time in the field is actually spent in a lab in a museum.  Here, there are the regular employees who come and go, and I am a guest in their regular routine.  When they walk by my door, I feel guilty if I am not head-down and focused, so it keeps me accountable.  Therefore, I decided to do a few lab visits this summer, giving myself time beyond what is needed for my other research projects to focus on the book.  It's a rough life, but it looks like the first full draft of the book will be written in Zagreb, Croatia and Johannesburg, South Africa.  Again, this book won't exist unless I put the effort into it!  
1 Comment

    Author

    Julie Lesnik received her PhD studying the role of termites in the diet of fossil hominins and has since started exploring insects as food more broadly.

    Categories

    All
    Anthropology
    Delicious
    Human Evolution
    Industry
    Outreach
    Q&A
    Research
    Sutainability
    Travel
    Writing

    Archives

    February 2023
    December 2020
    May 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @JulieLesnik
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.