Synopses & Reviews
Inspired by forests, trees, leaves, roots, and seeds,
The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape
invites readers to discover an unexpected and imaginative language to
better read and write the natural world around us and reclaim our
relationship with it. In this gorgeously illustrated and deeply
thoughtful collection, Katie Holten gifts readers her tree alphabet and
uses it to masterfully translate and illuminate beloved lost and new,
original writing in praise of the natural world.
With an introduction from Ross Gay, and featuring writings from
over fifty contributors including Ursula K. Le Guin, Ada Limón, Robert
Macfarlane, Zadie Smith, Radiohead, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, James Gleick,
Elizabeth Kolbert, Plato, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, Holten illustrates
each selection with an abiding love and reverence for the magic of
trees. She guides readers on a journey from creation myths and cave
paintings to the death of a 3,500-year-old cypress tree, from Tree
Clocks in Mongolia and forest fragments in the Amazon to the language of
fossil poetry, unearthing a new way to see the natural beauty all
around us and an urgent reminder of what could happen if we allow it to
slip away.
The Language of Trees considers our relationship with
literature and landscape, resulting in an astonishing fusion of
storytelling and art and a deeply beautiful celebration of trees through
the ages.
Review
"Revelatory. . . . Wondrous. . . . An exquisite ode to all things arboreal." The Washington Independent Review of Books
Review
"Incredibly refreshing. . . . A stunning celebration of trees through the
ages, this book is sure to spark passion with every passing page." Chicago Review of Books
Review
"An appealing, celebratory offering with an urgent message." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Katie Holten is an artist and activist. In 2003, she
represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale. She has had solo exhibitions
at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Nevada Museum of Art, the New
Orleans Museum of Art, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and Dublin
City Gallery The Hugh Lane. Her drawings investigate the tangled
relationships between humans and the natural world. She has created Tree
Alphabets, a Stone Alphabet, and a Wildflower Alphabet to share the joy
she finds in her love of the more-than-human world. Her work has
appeared in
The New Yorker,
The New York Times,
Artforum, and
frieze. She is a visiting lecturer at the New School of the Anthropocene. If she could be a tree, she would be an Oak.