This week on The Write Question, Lauren talks with Bozeman, Montana-based essayist Amy Leach about her modern bestiary, The Everybody Ensemble, in which she brings together a cacophony of voices—of the many, many animals that populate our world—to illuminate the joy that we, as humans, often overlook and take for granted, particularly during this time of planetary catastrophe. Satirically, hilariously, Leach reminds us that, human or non-human, we are all in this together.
About Amy:
The recipient of a Whiting Award, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award, and a Pushcart Prize, Amy Leach grew up in Texas, earned her MFA in nonfiction creative writing from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and currently lives in Bozeman, Montana. Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, and numerous publications, including A Public Space, Orion, Tin House, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. The Everybody Ensemble is her second book.
Amy Leach recommends:
The Sickness Unto Death by Søren Kierkegaard (Princeton University Press)
Letters on Cézanne by Rainer Maria Rilke (North Point Press)
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (Penguin Random House)
Lauren Korn recommends:
Things That Are by Amy Leach (Milkweed Editions)
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions)
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay (Algonquin Books)
