Betsy McCully

Betsy McCully has published essays, articles, stories, poems, and most recently, a book. City at the Water’s Edge: A Natural History of New York (Rivergate/​Rutgers University Press 2007) grew out of twenty years of research and nature exploration in her adopted city, where she has lived since 1984. As an environmental educator, she frequently gives lectures on New York’s natural and environmental history, and has created an educational website, NewYorkNature.net.

City at the Water’s Edge offers a re-imagining of an urban place, a vision of a city as a human habitat that is part of a bioregion, both shaped by the land and shaping it. The book begins with the premise that only by such a paradigm shift, by our willingness to re-imagine the nature of the city, can we restore a balance between the city and nature. Understanding the history of a place helps us to envision its future, as we restore lost or fragmented habitats, recover endangered species, and create a sense of home that weaves nature and culture into a complex tapestry.

Her current book project, with the working title of Sustaining New York: An Environmental History of an Urban Habitat (under contract with Rutgers University Press), focuses on New York’s built environment, chronicling the city’s growth from a 17th-century village to a 21st-century megacity. It documents the ways haphazard development altered topography, destroyed ecosystems, and threatened human health and life. In particular, it tells the stories of the people who have shaped the environment, recounting their often piecemeal efforts to address the intertwined problems of pollution, sanitation, poverty, and public health. It analyzes the mentality that views growth as an unmitigated good, and also delineates a growing ecological awareness that first emerged in colonial times. Finally, it considers whether a sustainable city on the scale of New York is possible. As a case study of one of the largest cities in an increasingly urbanized and overcrowded world, Sustaining New York offers an invaluable perspective on how people have met environmental challenges posed by runaway urban growth.

In addition to nonfiction, Betsy McCully writes fiction for children and young adults. Her story, “The Maize Doll,” was published in The North Atlantic Coast: Stories from Where We Live, edited by Sara St. Antoine (Milkweed Press, 2000). The life of a Lenape Indian girl is turned upside down by the arrival of the Dutch in New York. The colonists bring profound changes in the land, uprooting the ancient inhabitants. The girl grows into a woman with a healing gift, who befriends a Dutch woman and teaches her about Lenape plant medicine. During this time of upheaval and war, their friendship somehow endures, and each passes on to their daughters the legacy of their friendship.

Betsy McCully received her Ph.D. in American Literature from George Washington University in 1989. She has taught at George Washington University, Hofstra University, and New York University. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of English at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she coordinates an annual Eco-Festival and Environmental Symposium. In 2008, Kingsborough Eco-Festival was the recipient of the CUNY Sustainability Award.