The Write Question: seeking refuge, becoming a tree
Many thanks to Lauren Korn of “The Write Question” for her November 12, 2026 interview centered on Feathered Forest: Aloft with Birds in Ancient Trees. I loved her questions about musicality, bird song, and how attending to sound in the wild forest leads to a greater intimacy. I am happy, too, that our discussion gave me a chance to speak to the significance of Nina Ferrari’s research on birds and climate in a vertical world at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest.
The Write Question is a weekly literary program hosted by Lauren Korn that features authors from the American West—and beyond.
The website also includes books mentioned and recommended reading.
Mentioned in this episode:
Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher(Oregon State University Press) by Marina Richie; listen to Lauren’s previous conversation with Marina here!
Nina Ferrari, Mark Schulze, and the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest; find out more about their long-term ecological research here!
“Treasures in the Canopy,” an article Marina wrote for BirdWatching about Nina
E. O. Wilson proposed the “Half-Earth” conservation concept in his 2016 book, Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life(Liveright Publishing Corporation)
Ursula K. Le Guin, author of the Earthsea series (Library of America) and The Word for World is Forest (Tor Books)
Marina Richie recommends:
Born of Fire and Rain: Journey into a Pacific Coastal Forestby M.L. Herring (Yale University Press)
Among the Birds: Field Notes from Cascadiaby Lyanda Lynn Haupt, illustrated by Justin Gibbens (Skipstone Press)
Oregon’s Ancient Forests: A Hiking Guide by Chandra LeGue (Mountaineers Books)
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Scribner)
Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life by Ferris Jabr (Penguin Random House)
Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living Worldby Linda Hogan(W. W. Norton & Company)
A Beautifully Burned Forest: Learning to Celebrate Severe Forest Fireby Richard Hutto (Springer)
Birding to Change the World: A Memoir by Trish O’Kane (Ecco)
The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Natureby David George Haskell (Viking Books)
Rare Bird: Pursuing the Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet by Maria Mudd Ruth (Mountaineers Books)
Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracleby Thor Hanson (Basic Books)
Lauren Korn recommends:
Feathered Forest: Aloft with Birds in Ancient Trees (Chelsea Green Publishing) and Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher(Oregon State University Press) by Marina Richie; listen to Lauren’s previous conversation with Marina here!
Marina’s Field Note, “Belted Kingfisher Community Science: A Head-Pounding Discovery,” which is a revised excerpt from Halcyon Journey (Montana Natural History Center)
Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry edited by C Marie Fuhrman, Elizabeth Bradfield, and Derek Sheffield (Mountaineers Books)
The Peregrine by J. A. Baker (New York Review of Books)
Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction by David George Haskell (Viking Books)
We Should All Be Birds by Brian Buckbee, with Carol Ann Fitzgerald (Tin House Books; Zando Projects) Note: The audiobook is narrated by Brian and is also fantastic!
Birding to Change the World: A Memoir by Trish O’Kane (Ecco)
BirdNote Daily, an interstitial radio program and podcast… About birds!
BirdNote: 100 Illustrated Bird Stories to Inspire Your Bird Watching, inspired by and written by the creators of BirdNote (linked above).
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