The Origins of Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer is an unlikely literary star. A botanist by training\u2014a specialist in moss\u2014she spent much of her career at the State University of New York\u2019s College of Environmental Science and Forestry. But, when she was well established in her academic work, having \u201cdone the things you need to do to get tenure,\u201d she launched into a different kind of writing; her new style sought to bridge the divide between Western science and Indigenous teachings she had learned, as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, about the connections between people, the land, plants, and animals. The result was \u201cBraiding Sweetgrass,\u201d a series of essays about the natural world and our relationship to it. The book was published by Milkweed Editions, a small literary press, and it grew only by word of mouth. Several years later, it landed on the Times best-seller list, and has remained there for more than three years; fans have described reading the essays as a spiritual experience. Kimmerer herself was recently recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship. Parul Sehgal, who writes about literature for The New Yorker, went to visit Kimmerer on the land she writes about so movingly, to talk about the book\u2019s origin and its impact on its tenth anniversary. \u201cI wanted to see what would happen if you imbue science with values,\u201d Kimmerer told her. She is an environmentalist, but not an activist per se; her ambition for her work is actually larger. \u201cSo much of the environmental movement to me is grounded in fear,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd we have a lot to be afraid about\u2014let\u2019s not ignore that\u2014but what I really wanted to do was to help people really love the land again. Because I think that\u2019s why we are where we are: that we haven\u2019t loved the land enough.\u201d