In this TWQ mini episode, host Lauren Korn speaks with writer, instructor, and landscape designer and historian Kathryn Aalto, author of Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World (Timber Press). The two talk about definitions of “wild” and the “Retreat into the Montana Rockies,” a nature writing retreat taking place April 14-16, 2023, in Seeley Lake, Montana, with Aalto, Bryce Andrews, and Pete Fromm.
About Kathryn:
Kathryn Aalto is an American teacher, designer, speaker, and New York Times best-selling writer of creative non-fiction. Kathryn is the author of three books including Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World (2020), The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest that Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood (2015), and Nature and Human Intervention (2011).
A personal essayist and book reviewer, her work appears in Smithsonian Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Buzzfeed, Resurgence and the Ecologist, and more. Her work has been widely reviewed in print, radio, TV, and digital platforms including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, BBC Countryfile Magazine, and more. She is currently working on her fourth book.
Some recommendations from Writing Wild:
Rural Hours by Susan Fenimore Cooper (Syracuse University Publications)
Selected Poems by Vita Sackville-West
The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution by Carolyn Merchant (HarperCollins)
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (Penguin Random House)
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions)
Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape (Counterpoint Press)
Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finny (University of North Carolina Press)
Lauren Korn recommends:
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions)
Finding Beauty in a Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams (Vintage Books)
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray (Milkweed Editions)
Oceanic (Copper Canyon Press) and World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments (Milkweed Editions) by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
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The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; Chris Moyles, co-producer and sound engineer.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss. Our music was written and recorded by John Floridis.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
