A Book you need to read: “Been Outside” available now

I’m thrilled to announce that the book “BEEN OUTSIDE: Adventures of Black Women, Nonbinary, and Gender Nonconforming People in Nature” is available for pre-order through Mountaineers Books (also at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Bookshop, etc.)! Edited and organized by Shaz Zamore and Amber Wendler, thank you for inviting me and pulling all of these beautiful people together. I can’t wait to read all of the other contributors' works as well.

“Nature, the perfect therapist” is my public debut of ANY of my art forms. Those who know me know that I write occasionally but also understand that opportunities to view my pieces have always been far and few between. I’ve written poems and monologues throughout my mental health journey to get my thoughts out of my headspace. When writing the pitch for my segment, I was trying to think of the best emotional representation of my journey TO nature. How did I get interested, or how did it become my passion? I immediately thought back to my college days (when I first started birding) and the ups and downs that led to my hobby. Remembering all those poems and monologues that I STILL HAD on my phone from 2014 bred an idea that could be healing for me and my readers. I took this opportunity to shed some light on the cobwebbed notes as they perfectly depict some of my struggles in real-time. For each piece, I then wrote a response from my current self: my thoughts on the scribbles now, what I learned from that time in history, and how it brought me closer to nature. I think it will be beneficial to readers who may be experiencing similar emotions to see the growth that can come from these struggles and know they are not alone. I hope all readers of my samples gain some hope, peace, and contentment through the passages and feel the raw emotions I scrawled so many years ago.

Contributors are all Black women and nonbinary outdoor writers working in botany, marine biology, ornithology, mammalogy, environmental policy, land management, and more. The book encompasses four major themes—identity, inspiration, ancestry, and stewardship. Forward by Carolyn Finney.

Each purchase will support The Humble Hustle Co and their program that gets Black youth outside through their Humble Hikes program.

Cover Artwork by Simone Martin-Newberry.