I won't lie -- I found your report from the Substack Writers at Work Forum depressing! I would have guessed a higher number of people would be interested in nature topics. Like, at least 10x that many. Wow, bummer. I appreciate that you went through it and reported what you found, though.
Like you, I find it super helpful and satisfying to spend time in nature, and it definitely helps get me outside of myself and to focus on more than human-centric concerns. I believe we must collectively become less self-obsessed if we are going to have a respectful relationship with all the other creatures on the planet again.
I was quite pleasantly surprised that you included one of my pieces in your recommendations. I wasn't expecting that, and was just reading it to find some good articles. Thanks!
Ugh. I know. I was definitely a bit down after looking through the forum. But I actually see that there are nature writers here who have a lot of readers and get a ton of engagement, so I think that people are after all interested in what they have to say … it’s just maybe not their first priority? But even if nature is a little lower on the priority list for many people, I think that good nature writing still captures them!
My audience is definitely growing more quickly than it has with my blogs at WordPress and Medium, even though I was using social media to drive traffic toward them. (I'm off social media currently.) So, yes I am encouraged both by my engagement here and by the high quality work I find to follow (like yours).
Yet another nature writer on Substack. And, yes, I agree, it is hard to get others to read about dragonflies and squirrels when the world is in a panic that everyone is trying to wrap their heads around. But the naturalist has an anchor that humans in their hurry cannot provide. A fascination for those soaring hawks and networked mycelium teach of connections and interdependence that humans seem eager to sever with each other in these times. Truly, I can think of no greater way to spend a life. Thanks for pointing out this little corner of Substack!
Thanks for your insights and all the introductions to other nature-themed Substacks, Rebecca! I especially enjoyed hearing the forest sounds from across the world!
🙋🏻♀️ obsessed with whale song, here! And…astonished there weren’t more other-than-human prompts in that list! How depressing…and how wonderful to discover so many neat folks via your roundup here- thank you. 🐋
Ok, I’m human, and I choose nature, all the time. You have my gratitude for taking the time, doing the research , and sharing your special nature writers list. It is extremely disappointing but not at all surprising that nature had a minimal showing.
I can’t imagine what life would be like without having awareness of all the beauty that surrounds us and in return , the overwhelming need to protect .
May I add David E. Perry; In the garden of his Imagination. And Ken Lamberton; The Big yard.
Thanks so much for this round-up of nature writers - it’s really useful. I write about gardens, gardening and the magic of nature and it’s always just so wonderful to find others
Lovely! Thanks for visiting. I've just subscribed and look forward to being inspired by your work. Btw, your homepage looks so good -- beautiful photography and inviting layout.
I am mostly interested in more than human writing, but your post tells me certain terms I am innthe minority. Granted I love the relational intersection with humans too.
Sorry I hit the blue arrow before I meant to there. It's only through writing my last book that I've been reminded that while nature writing to me feels like a huge genre (because we're all super passionate perhaps, and engrossed) it is still relatively small. It is well invested in by publishers but when I visited a few bookshops last month and took note of the size of the Nature Writing shelves relative to other genres I was amazed at how small they still are out there in the real world. I found it very depressing. Meanwhile, how to make money one way or another and succeed is still such a crowdpleaser in the online space. Thank you for this wonderful line up of people to dig in to! Your substack is such a gift to me (us all) xx
Oh, you are most welcome. I have been off social media for a year or so now, but I do use Substack notes, which is certainly a form of it. The difference is that I once dreaded picking up my phone to read the online happenings, whereas I now look forward to approaching human interaction through substack. Finding these wonderful nature and nature-ish writers and curating a feed of their work is the biggest factor there, I'd say. So thanks to you and all! 💚
This is such a sobering observation about the market for nature books, Ruth. I just finished a book that manages to cross over: “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” by Shelby Van Pelt. It’s a best seller with quirky characters and a page-turning plot, with some chapters narrated quite convincingly by a giant Pacific octopus in captivity in a small-town aquarium.
Loved this. 🙏 I’m a big believer in the intelligence of stories and their desire to be told well. Our first job is to tell them beautifully. Give it that and the story will find its audience.
Of course I may be a damned fool and prove to be completely wrong. It’s happened before.
No, I think you must be right. It appears many people, as indicated by the forum I perused, would not consider "nature writing" their top interest. However, many nature writers/photographers here have found a broad audience and have great engagement. I imagine this means that while maybe "nature" is not everyone's top priority, it still ranks somewhere on their list of interests.
And I've just subscribed to your publication and look forward to it very much.
Thank you for your observations and for all the great recommendations! I’ve been parsing through Substack for fellow outdoor enthusiasts and it’s nice to finally come across an article that makes me feel like I belong here.
Thank you very much! I love Eugene and think the outdoor community is really special. I’m hoping my publication will bring all the conservationists and outdoorsy folk together. Hope you enjoy!
I am SO interested in the beyond human world and would love to read more about it (very shyly attempting to learn to write about it too) I am so glad I’ve found you and so happy to now have all these links to beautiful, life filled articles to read and follow along with! Thank you!
Edited to add: I've just found your substack and subscribed. So glad you are sharing here and look forward to spending time with your work!
Ooh, this is wonderful to hear. Please feel free to share any writing that feels comfortable with us here in the future. And oh my goodness, there are some incredible writers linked above, aren't they?? It's almost like a mini-MFA in creative nonfiction, just reading their work. I am constantly blown away by their skill.
I subscribe to over 50 Substack's, including yours, and not a single one is political. 90 percent are pure science, environmental or nature. I subscribe to a substack that only talks of trees, ones that only talk of lakes and oceans, ones that talk of deserts, of birds. I have been called a misanthrope but that's not quite accurate. I just am no longer interested in human affairs. When I pass away from this world, it won't be in the company of people and it won't be the human world I miss. Tthough I daily pray everyone and everything be well, I know in my ancient bones that a world without humans wouldn't be such a bad thing. Life, great Life would go on.
Thank you, Rebecca. I am always saddened when presidential elections roll around how politics dominates our discourse, even here on Substack. I wrote as a comment in another newsletter I subscribe to, the following: "As I grow older, I identify less and less with my gender, my race, my social class, my party, my country. I identify less and less with my species, I pray every morning without fail for the benefit of all beings- all beings not just the humans, -and the Bodhisattvas I esteem extend their compassion to all life. As I grow older I identify less and less even with this geological era- the bright sphere of my affection extends into Deep Time to the very formation of the solar system and out into limitless space. I less and less identify myself with my own life, or Life itself. If all life on the planet were gone it would still be a place of incredible beauty. We add nothing to it. Civilizations rise and fall, species rise and fall. We do what we can while we can and that's the whole of it. The waves are indifferent, the gulls cry in the wind. Your words and mine are swept away. Yet if your hopes would see fruition, I would not be unhappy."
Maybe it's my age, but it's not world weariness or misanthropy that I've come to. It is just the sphere of love now has expanded far beyond human affairs and all the grudges and grievances.
Great resources here, thanks! And really nice article. I tried that forum too and had a similar experience — not so much about content, but, as you say, tone. I’m interested in books, not nature, as the main thing, but among the substacks that have resonated the most have been by artists or poets who are closely focused on the natural world.
Oh lovely. I've just clicked through to your homepage and subscribed. I will make a cup of tea and read your previous posts. My attention was immediately drawn to your flax image. Our native flax here in this corner of North America is called Linum lewisii and looks very similar to yours, only with petals that are slightly more lilac and less blue. It's among my favorite flowers and such a gift in spring. I hope your flax blossoms are not too far away yet, there in Sweden. 💙
How wonderful that you saw the flax and it pulled up all of this! I fell completely in love with the plant when I started reading up on it. To hear about it through the eyes of someone who knows it is marvelous.
I've only seen flax in fields so far, and am guessing that the kind grown by farmers would be here is the variety that's for oil, not fiber. But this year will plant a whole patch of the fiber variety (I assume?) in the garden. Apparently here one sows it here in May and it begins to blossom around midsummer, so we're far behind you. Am looking forward to it, and even more so now.
The line about tea and reading the essays was lovely — thank you. I hope so much that they give enjoyment.
They have! I've been enjoying them very much. Thanks for your work, and best of luck with your flax plantings in May. Maybe we will see some photos this summer? 💚
I won't lie -- I found your report from the Substack Writers at Work Forum depressing! I would have guessed a higher number of people would be interested in nature topics. Like, at least 10x that many. Wow, bummer. I appreciate that you went through it and reported what you found, though.
Like you, I find it super helpful and satisfying to spend time in nature, and it definitely helps get me outside of myself and to focus on more than human-centric concerns. I believe we must collectively become less self-obsessed if we are going to have a respectful relationship with all the other creatures on the planet again.
I was quite pleasantly surprised that you included one of my pieces in your recommendations. I wasn't expecting that, and was just reading it to find some good articles. Thanks!
Ugh. I know. I was definitely a bit down after looking through the forum. But I actually see that there are nature writers here who have a lot of readers and get a ton of engagement, so I think that people are after all interested in what they have to say … it’s just maybe not their first priority? But even if nature is a little lower on the priority list for many people, I think that good nature writing still captures them!
My audience is definitely growing more quickly than it has with my blogs at WordPress and Medium, even though I was using social media to drive traffic toward them. (I'm off social media currently.) So, yes I am encouraged both by my engagement here and by the high quality work I find to follow (like yours).
I am here! I am here! (Horton Hears a Who style)
Yet another nature writer on Substack. And, yes, I agree, it is hard to get others to read about dragonflies and squirrels when the world is in a panic that everyone is trying to wrap their heads around. But the naturalist has an anchor that humans in their hurry cannot provide. A fascination for those soaring hawks and networked mycelium teach of connections and interdependence that humans seem eager to sever with each other in these times. Truly, I can think of no greater way to spend a life. Thanks for pointing out this little corner of Substack!
Yes! I’ve just subscribed. Can’t wait to read about dragonflies and squirrels. :)
I haven’t been on substack very long but I have found many great nature writers here. Unfortunately not many have found me.
I have! I actually meant to link to your waterfall piece. I loved it. I’ll pop it in the list above next time I’m on my computer.
I'm a nature writer and photographer!
Oh fantastic! I’ve just subscribed. Looking forward to spending some time with your work!
Thanks so much Rebecca!
Thanks for your insights and all the introductions to other nature-themed Substacks, Rebecca! I especially enjoyed hearing the forest sounds from across the world!
Weren’t they lovely! And let’s link to Mother E! I’ll put a link on when I’m back on my computer next. 💚
I was going to link Mother E to this but it looks like Rebecca is on it.
Definitely need to include Mother E 👍
🙋🏻♀️ obsessed with whale song, here! And…astonished there weren’t more other-than-human prompts in that list! How depressing…and how wonderful to discover so many neat folks via your roundup here- thank you. 🐋
The whale-song person was you!! I hope you do get a chance to write it someday. :)
Ok, I’m human, and I choose nature, all the time. You have my gratitude for taking the time, doing the research , and sharing your special nature writers list. It is extremely disappointing but not at all surprising that nature had a minimal showing.
I can’t imagine what life would be like without having awareness of all the beauty that surrounds us and in return , the overwhelming need to protect .
May I add David E. Perry; In the garden of his Imagination. And Ken Lamberton; The Big yard.
Yes, and thanks for you, for caring about our beautiful world. I have tracked down and subscribed to the writers you mentioned. Thank you!!
David Perry: https://davideperry.substack.com/
And thank you for including both David Perry and Ken Lamberton. I’m sure you will find both , a very worthy read.
Ken Lamberton: https://kenlamberton.substack.com/
Thanks so much for this round-up of nature writers - it’s really useful. I write about gardens, gardening and the magic of nature and it’s always just so wonderful to find others
Lovely! Thanks for visiting. I've just subscribed and look forward to being inspired by your work. Btw, your homepage looks so good -- beautiful photography and inviting layout.
Thank you so much Rebecca - and thank you for that lovely feedback. I really hope you enjoy it
I am mostly interested in more than human writing, but your post tells me certain terms I am innthe minority. Granted I love the relational intersection with humans too.
Yes! It seems you inhabit the sweet spot of that relational intersection in your work. Maybe that's why I love it so. :)
Sorry I hit the blue arrow before I meant to there. It's only through writing my last book that I've been reminded that while nature writing to me feels like a huge genre (because we're all super passionate perhaps, and engrossed) it is still relatively small. It is well invested in by publishers but when I visited a few bookshops last month and took note of the size of the Nature Writing shelves relative to other genres I was amazed at how small they still are out there in the real world. I found it very depressing. Meanwhile, how to make money one way or another and succeed is still such a crowdpleaser in the online space. Thank you for this wonderful line up of people to dig in to! Your substack is such a gift to me (us all) xx
Oh, you are most welcome. I have been off social media for a year or so now, but I do use Substack notes, which is certainly a form of it. The difference is that I once dreaded picking up my phone to read the online happenings, whereas I now look forward to approaching human interaction through substack. Finding these wonderful nature and nature-ish writers and curating a feed of their work is the biggest factor there, I'd say. So thanks to you and all! 💚
This is such a sobering observation about the market for nature books, Ruth. I just finished a book that manages to cross over: “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” by Shelby Van Pelt. It’s a best seller with quirky characters and a page-turning plot, with some chapters narrated quite convincingly by a giant Pacific octopus in captivity in a small-town aquarium.
Loved this. 🙏 I’m a big believer in the intelligence of stories and their desire to be told well. Our first job is to tell them beautifully. Give it that and the story will find its audience.
Of course I may be a damned fool and prove to be completely wrong. It’s happened before.
No, I think you must be right. It appears many people, as indicated by the forum I perused, would not consider "nature writing" their top interest. However, many nature writers/photographers here have found a broad audience and have great engagement. I imagine this means that while maybe "nature" is not everyone's top priority, it still ranks somewhere on their list of interests.
And I've just subscribed to your publication and look forward to it very much.
Thank you for your observations and for all the great recommendations! I’ve been parsing through Substack for fellow outdoor enthusiasts and it’s nice to finally come across an article that makes me feel like I belong here.
You belong! I am very excited about your new publication. I've just subscribed. I have a big soft spot for Eugene and environs. Welcome!
Thank you very much! I love Eugene and think the outdoor community is really special. I’m hoping my publication will bring all the conservationists and outdoorsy folk together. Hope you enjoy!
I am SO interested in the beyond human world and would love to read more about it (very shyly attempting to learn to write about it too) I am so glad I’ve found you and so happy to now have all these links to beautiful, life filled articles to read and follow along with! Thank you!
Edited to add: I've just found your substack and subscribed. So glad you are sharing here and look forward to spending time with your work!
Ooh, this is wonderful to hear. Please feel free to share any writing that feels comfortable with us here in the future. And oh my goodness, there are some incredible writers linked above, aren't they?? It's almost like a mini-MFA in creative nonfiction, just reading their work. I am constantly blown away by their skill.
I subscribe to over 50 Substack's, including yours, and not a single one is political. 90 percent are pure science, environmental or nature. I subscribe to a substack that only talks of trees, ones that only talk of lakes and oceans, ones that talk of deserts, of birds. I have been called a misanthrope but that's not quite accurate. I just am no longer interested in human affairs. When I pass away from this world, it won't be in the company of people and it won't be the human world I miss. Tthough I daily pray everyone and everything be well, I know in my ancient bones that a world without humans wouldn't be such a bad thing. Life, great Life would go on.
Thank you for your daily prayers for all of us, human and non-human alike. I am so grateful for you.
Thank you, Rebecca. I am always saddened when presidential elections roll around how politics dominates our discourse, even here on Substack. I wrote as a comment in another newsletter I subscribe to, the following: "As I grow older, I identify less and less with my gender, my race, my social class, my party, my country. I identify less and less with my species, I pray every morning without fail for the benefit of all beings- all beings not just the humans, -and the Bodhisattvas I esteem extend their compassion to all life. As I grow older I identify less and less even with this geological era- the bright sphere of my affection extends into Deep Time to the very formation of the solar system and out into limitless space. I less and less identify myself with my own life, or Life itself. If all life on the planet were gone it would still be a place of incredible beauty. We add nothing to it. Civilizations rise and fall, species rise and fall. We do what we can while we can and that's the whole of it. The waves are indifferent, the gulls cry in the wind. Your words and mine are swept away. Yet if your hopes would see fruition, I would not be unhappy."
Maybe it's my age, but it's not world weariness or misanthropy that I've come to. It is just the sphere of love now has expanded far beyond human affairs and all the grudges and grievances.
That's so beautiful, Michael.
Agreed. Exquisite. Thank you for sharing this.
I think aging does this to us!
I feel that is true in my case, for certain.
Thanks for this - just followed Chloe Hope.
Great resources here, thanks! And really nice article. I tried that forum too and had a similar experience — not so much about content, but, as you say, tone. I’m interested in books, not nature, as the main thing, but among the substacks that have resonated the most have been by artists or poets who are closely focused on the natural world.
Oh lovely. I've just clicked through to your homepage and subscribed. I will make a cup of tea and read your previous posts. My attention was immediately drawn to your flax image. Our native flax here in this corner of North America is called Linum lewisii and looks very similar to yours, only with petals that are slightly more lilac and less blue. It's among my favorite flowers and such a gift in spring. I hope your flax blossoms are not too far away yet, there in Sweden. 💙
How wonderful that you saw the flax and it pulled up all of this! I fell completely in love with the plant when I started reading up on it. To hear about it through the eyes of someone who knows it is marvelous.
I've only seen flax in fields so far, and am guessing that the kind grown by farmers would be here is the variety that's for oil, not fiber. But this year will plant a whole patch of the fiber variety (I assume?) in the garden. Apparently here one sows it here in May and it begins to blossom around midsummer, so we're far behind you. Am looking forward to it, and even more so now.
The line about tea and reading the essays was lovely — thank you. I hope so much that they give enjoyment.
They have! I've been enjoying them very much. Thanks for your work, and best of luck with your flax plantings in May. Maybe we will see some photos this summer? 💚
Thank you for reading! Now to explore all of this wonderful writing on the natural world that this post has opened up, starting with your site 🌸