(This is my personal statement. For an official/media biography, please visit my bio/presskit page.)
I Am: A writer, naturalist, mother, Audubon Master Birder, wildlife watcher, dirt worshiper, obsessive diarist, closet-poet, spinner and knitter, barefoot walker, woodland wanderer.
I Believe: Connection to nature inspires our deepest imaginings, artfulness, intelligence, and activism. It kindles our wildness and creativity no matter where we live—forest cabin, suburban bungalow, or urban condo.
My Story and Work: I never meant to live in a city. As a young, tree-hugging, earth-mother-to-be, I was sure I would end up in some funky cabin-esque home, surrounded by meadows and woodlands, frolicking barefoot with my daughter as the bell around our cow’s soft neck tinkled. That’s not at all what happened. My husband Tom and I settled in Seattle where I took my fresh graduate degree in eco-philosophy and got a job with an environmental organization, while he worked in the field of global health. I birthed the presaged girl, and wrote my first book during her naps. To stave off my latent cow yearnings, we installed a backyard chicken coop with four beautiful laying hens, and grew a huge garden.
Five books later, we still live in Seattle. My work is grounded in observation and study of the wild earth in my daily round—tracks, birds, feathers, ferns, trees, mosses—and interweaves personal experience with science, myth, spirit, craft, and art.
At my blog, The Tangled Nest, and in my newsletter Wander I share my evolving thoughts about cultivating a connection to the ever-present natural world, and crafting a rooted, creative, authentic life.
(And BTW, now that my daughter is off to college, who knows what will happen? Maybe I’ll talk my husband into that woodland yurt after all…)
For info on speaking, events, and book groups, please see my news and events page.