Winner, Nonfiction: Reading the West Book Award
“This heartfelt, intelligent, and continuously deepening book is a model of reflective environmental practice, full of insight, wisdom, struggle, and hope.” — Review, Western American Literature
“Seeing nature in everything and everyone allows Corbett to demonstrate the deep interconnectedness of life on this planet…. These essays are smart, funny, and well-written.” — Review, New Pages
“This exceptional, eclectic book is the brave future of nature writing.”
—RICHARD LOUV, author of The Nature Principle and Last Child in the Woods
“An engaging, accessible, beautifully written celebration of our frayed relationship with the more-than-human world and the animals who are our kin . . . Julia Corbett explores the richness of nearby nature, reminding us that nurturing our bond with local landscapes is essential to the survival of the natural world and key to our own health and happiness.”
—MICHAEL P. BRANCH, author of Rants from the Hill and Raising Wild
“Out of the Woods offers a nuanced and inspiring account of what it means to lead an environmentally aware life, discovering small miracles of the natural world in unexpected places but also searching for the truth behind the greenwashing, and trying to do better . . . these scintillating essays are a tonic for confronting complacency in a time of ecological crisis.”
—JAMES BARILLA, author of My Backyard Jungle
“Out of the Woods: Seeing Nature in the Everyday is full of wonderful turns and explorations about how our human lives entangle and enmesh with all that nonhuman life surrounding us. These essays promise the everyday and proceed to show us the extraordinary—in the everyday. Of course, the everyday includes a day on the moon and the loss of a father, as well as a meditation on trash and insects. There are bear stories. There are dog stories. There are stories about college students. The author feels free to go anywhere, and you’ll want to follow.” –Review, GoodReads
“Throughout this well-crafted, contemplative collection, Corbett writes eloquently about the environmental conundrums she faces…” —Foreword Reviews
University of Nevada Press: “In this fresh and introspective collection of essays, Julia Corbett examines nature in our lives with all of its ironies and contradictions.
Each story delves into an overlooked aspect of our relationship with nature—insects, garbage, backyards, noise, open doors, animals, and language—and how we cover our tracks. Corbett confronts the owner of a high-end market who insists on keeping his doors open in all temperatures, and takes us on a trip to a new mall with a replica of a trout stream that once flowed nearby.
By weaving personal narratives with morsels of highly digestible science and research, Out of the Woods leads to surprising insights into the products, practices, and phrases we take for granted in our everyday encounters with nature and encourages us all to consider how we might revalue or reimagine our relationships with nature in our everyday lives.”
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