Zoom. Writing Wild: 25 Women Poets, Ramblers and Mavericks

About this Zoom talk

“Exciting, inspiring, intimidating, and bold.” — San Francisco Book Review 

Join acclaimed speaker and New York Times bestselling author Kathryn Aalto for a journey into literary landscapes near and far. Part travel essay, literary biography, and cultural history, her book, Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World, ventures into the landscapes and lives of extraordinary women who have written about the natural world. Register here. From Sissinghurst Castle Garden and Scafell Pike in the Lake District to the Southern Sierras in California to the beaches of Cape Cod, Kathryn Aalto traveled widely to research and write 25 engaging profiles of remarkable women, both historical and current, whose influential nature writing has deepened 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 but share a bold authenticity that makes their work distinct and universal. Featured writers include Dorothy Wordsworth, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Gene Stratton-Porter, Mary Austin, and Vita Sackville-West to contemporary Nan Shepherd, Rachel Carson, Mary Oliver, Carolyn Merchant, and Helen Macdonald. Register here.

“A fantastic resource for readers looking to grow their TBR piles.” — The Los Angeles Times

 “A heartening book, granting attention to women who dared to write and ramble wild.” — BBC Countryfile

For the past twenty-five years, Kathryn’s  creative practice has fused nature and culture: teaching the literature of nature and place; designing artful, edible, and sustainable gardens; and writing about the natural world.  She travels widely as a keynote speaker throughout North America and Britain.

“In writing, speaking, and design,” Kathryn says, “There are rich opportunities to create compelling narratives — one with words, the other with plants.” Register here.

She is the author of three books including The New York Times bestseller, 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). Her third and latest book is Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Women Who Shape How We See the Natural World.  Her essays have appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Buzzfeed, Resurgence and the Ecologist, and more. She is currently working on her fourth book.

This presentation is the third in the Winter Lecture Series presented by Merrill Lynch, a Bank of America Company.