Emma Marris is an award-winning journalist whose writing on science and the environment has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, National Geographic, Wired, Outside, High Country News, and many other publications, including Best American Science and Nature Writing. Her previous book, Rambunctious Garden, argued for a new conservation philosophy for the 21st century. Her TED Talk about redefining nature has over 1.4 million views. She was also featured on the TED Radio Hour and the series Adam Ruins Everything. She is based in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Sober, elegant, and philosophical...Marris questions many of the assumptions we make about nature, naturalness, wilderness, species, genetic purity...Ultimately, it seems, the best approach to salvaging nature will be a piecemeal affair, a mix of doing and not doing, the political and personal. * New York Review of Books * Fascinating . . . hands-on philosophy, put to test in the real world . . . Marris believes that our idea of wildness-our obsession with purity-is misguided. No animal remains untouched by human hands . . . the science isn't the hard part. The real challenge is the ethics, the act of imagining our appropriate place in that world. * Outside Magazine * Everybody who cares about animals should read this fascinating book. * Temple Grandin, author of ANIMALS IN TRANSLATION * Where do wild animals fit in a human-dominated world? The answer, for better or worse, will be determined by humans. Emma Marris's exploration of this question is at once thoughtful, thought-provoking, and thoroughly absorbing. * Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE SIXTH EXTINCTION * This is a deeply felt and deeply thought book, brimming with compassion and rue, that throws out revelations like a stream of arrows, each one aimed at the very heart of the matter. * Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of THE NOONDAY DEMON * Thoughtful, insightful, and wise, Wild Souls is a landmark work ... It should be a guidepost for our thoughts and actions for decades to come. * Ed Yong, author of I CONTAIN MULTITUDES * This is the best thinking-and-feeling person's guide to sharing the planet that I know. * Florence Williams, author of THE NATURE FIX * [Wild Souls] thinks hard about what words like 'wild' and 'nature' mean. As Marris journeys from Northwest wolves to rats in New Zealand, she finds answers that are as fascinating as they are unexpected. * Charles C. Mann, author of THE WIZARD AND THE PROPHET * Through stories that marry adventure and philosophy ... Wild Souls proposes a new framework for resolving the moral dilemmas that arise as we try to be good stewards of a thoroughly humanized world. * Beth Shapiro, author of HOW TO CLONE A MAMMOTH * With an epic sweep worthy of the subject, Emma Marris links cutting-edge science with deep compassion to provide us tools for approaching the decades ahead. * Neil Shubin, author of YOUR INNER FISH * [A] masterpiece of environmental philosophy ... This is a book meant to be argued with, in the best possible sense. * Ben Goldfarb, author of EAGER * I dare any nature-lover to read this book and not come away profoundly changed. * Douglas W. Smith, Senior Wildlife Biologist, Yellowstone National Park * This thoughtful, considerate book is perfect for anyone who wants to understand animals' places in the world. * Terri Schlichenmeyer, Bookworm * An absorbing and nuanced blend of philosophy and science...Wild Souls questions the very concepts of wildness and nature. The result challenges readers to reconsider how they relate to nonhuman animals, from caged creatures to polar bears in the warming north. * Science News *