Donate to WERU Today!Host:Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger
Music by Casey Neill
Conversations from the Pointed Firs is a monthly interview-style podcast wherein Peter Neill talks with authors and artists who live in Maine, work in Maine, or otherwise derive their creativity from the essence of Maine.
Host Peter Neill’s guest this month is Kimberly Ridley, science writer, essayist, and award-winning author, and resident of Brooklin, Maine. Her books for children include The Secret Pool and The Secret Bay, both illustrated by Rebekah Raye, Extreme Survivors: Animals That Time Forgot, and published this year, a new book of essays and historical renderings of natural things: Wild Designs: Nature’s Architects. Kim is an elegant writer, teacher and communicator of her affinity and sense of wonder of things observed in her own backyard in Maine. In this episode Kim and Peter discuss Kim’s many books, nature writing in general, the power of unstructured time for children, and the power present in close observations of our natural world.
-Nature Writing
-Children’s books
-Biomimicry
-Maine plants and animals
-Science
Guest:
Kimberly Ridley is a science writer, essayist, editor and children’s book author who has been writing about nature, science, health and the environment for more than 25 years. Her passion is “inciting wonder” by sharing her love of nature and science with children and adults. She does numerous author visits and has taught nonfiction-writing workshops in dozens of elementary schools in Maine and the northeast based on her books. In addition, she teaches nature writing workshops for families and adults and presents special talks and programs at libraries and other public venues around Maine.
About the host:
Peter Neill is founder and director of the World Ocean Observatory, a web-based place of exchange for information and educational services about the health of the ocean. In 1972, he founded Leete’s Island Books, a small publishing house specializing in literary reprints, the essay, photography, the environment, and profiles of indigenous healers and practitioners of complimentary medicine around the world. He holds a profound interest in Maine, its history, its people, its culture, and its contribution to community and quality of life.
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