Braiding Sweetgrass

By Robin Wall Kimmerer

$ 20.00

Likely On Our Shelves

A New York Times Bestseller
A Washington Post Bestseller
Named a "Best Essay Collection of the Decade" by Literary Hub

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings--asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass--offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling collection of essays Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants as well as Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

by Caroline

Robin Wall Kimmerer is one of my favorite authors for discussing the wonders of our natural world, the ways it connects us all, and how we can be better stewards for the future. She comes at her writing from a complex perspective; rooted both in her studies as a professor of environmental biology, and in her knowledge as an Indigenous woman of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Her work definitely helps me feel more connected and purposeful at any time, and would certainly be a great read for now!

From Connection & Reflection: Advice for an Upended World

ISBN: 9781571313560

ISBN-10: 9781571313560

Publisher: Milkweed Editions

Publication Date: 08/11/2015 - 12:00am

On Sale: 09/01/2014 - 12:00am

Pages: 408

Language: English

Braiding Sweetgrass

Braiding Sweetgrass

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