Sept. 14 Book Talk: Birds, Bees, and Biophilia
What a way to kick off fall!
I’m thrilled to be sharing the Zoom stage with three fantastic authors at Oblong Books on September 14, when Jackie Polzin, Sy Montgomery, and I will be in conversation with Florence Williams.
Jackie Polzin’s Brood focuses an unnamed, middle-aged woman living a quiet life in rural Minnesota and obsessing over her chickens as she and her husband contemplate a move. Polzin’s funny and engaging narrator slowly reveals the loss at the heart of the story. A rumination about the chickens could easily be read as a comment on the lack of adequate language for grief. “While there is not agreement on the subject of chickens and words, there is agreement that chickens speak of the here and now. A chicken does not speak of the day before. A chicken does not speak of tomorrow. A chicken speaks of this moment. I see this. I feel this. This is all there is.”
The Hummingbirds’ Gift from Sy Montgomery’s tells the story of another woman tending to feathered creatures—in this case Montgomery herself. Montgomery (who wrote The Soul of an Octopus and many other books), writes of helping rehab a pair of orphaned hummingbird babies, “the size of bumblebees, pink, blind, and naked.” The endeavor to save the baby birds included syringe feedings of mashed fruit flies every twenty minutes. Underneath the impulse to save two tiny creatures is a nobler sensibility: “If we, mere humans, could help transform these pathetically vulnerable infants to rulers of the sky, then perhaps our kind can heal our sweet, green, broken world.”
And perhaps healing our broken world begins with healing our broken selves. That’s what Florence Williams considers with The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative as she investigates eco-therapies in Japan, Korea, and Scotland, the impacts of noise pollution, and the science behind biophilia. Williams explores how spending time outside supports cognitive function, physical and psychological health, and even inspires creativity. In a chapter citing Wordsworth, Thoreau, Whitman, and Nietzsche, she writes, “It has long been believed that walking in restorative settings could lead not only to physical vigor but to mental clarity and even bursts of genius, inspiration (with its etymology in breathing), and overall sanity.”
The work of these three writers reads like a Venn diagram of my own interests. Like Williams, I’d be lost without my regular forays into nature. Like Montgomery, I find meaning in tending to wild and domestic creatures in and around my home. (See previous: Flight Lessons and Take Time to Stop and Hold the Chickens). And like Polzin’s narrator, my characters find solace and healing through connection with their non-human neighbors.
I’m so looking forward to this event, and I hope to see you there!