United States
£ GBP
In Writing Wild, Kathryn Aalto celebrates 25 women, both historical and current, whose influential writing helps deepen our connection to and understanding of the natural world. These inspiring wordsmiths are scholars, spiritual seekers, conservationists, scientists, novelists, and explorers. They defy easy categorization, yet they all share a bold authenticity that makes their work both distinct and universal.
Featured writers include:
- Dorothy Wordsworth, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Gene Stratton-Porter, Mary Austin, and Vita Sackville-West
- Nan Shepherd, Rachel Carson, Mary Oliver, Carolyn Merchant, and Annie Dillard
- Gretel Ehrlich, Leslie Marmon Silko, Diane Ackerman, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Lauret Savoy
- Rebecca Solnit, Kathleen Jamie, Carolyn Finney, Helen Macdonald, and Saci Lloyd
- Andrea Wulf, Camille T. Dungy, Elena Passarello, Amy Liptrot, and Elizabeth Rush
Part travel essay, literary biography, and cultural history, Writing Wild ventures into the landscapes and lives of extraordinary writers and encourages a new generation of women to pick up their pens, head outdoors, and start writing wild.
Kathryn Aalto is an American landscape designer, historian, writer, and lecturer living in Exeter, England. She has master’s degrees in garden history and creative nonfiction with a particular interest in literary landscapes. Before her expat life, she taught American Literature of Nature and Place in the Pacific Northwest. She is a member of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, and Garden Communicators International.
"An exciting, expert, and invaluable group portrait of seminal women writers enriching a genre crucial to our future."
– Booklist
"What a joy to travel these paths alongside Kathryn Aalto and such fierce, trailblazing, and perceptive women."
– Sarah L. Kaufman, Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post critic and author of The Art of Grace
"An impassioned and illuminating anthology that serves as an act of recovery and discovery, a personal celebration, and a timely reminder of the wealth and sheer power of women's voices."
– Rob Cowen, author of Common Ground
"Kathryn Aalto brilliantly braids engaging personal narrative with accessible literary biography, to take readers on an inspiring pilgrimage."
– Michael P. Branch, author of Rants from the Hill and How to Cuss in Western
