Zibby Mag

By Maddie Woda

Each year, I wait for the first truly cold day to re-read Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk. It is a quiet story of love and grief and connection—in other words, the ideal fall read. Autumn is the perfect time to cozy up with a nature memoir: the leaves are changing, temperatures are cooling down, and birds are flying south for the winter. It is a beautiful time to be outside and witness the natural world slow down.

In these six memoirs, you’ll become attached to different creatures and landscapes, and to the authors that observe them.

Sounding: Journeys in the Company of Whales by Doreen Cunningham

On the first page of Sounding, Doreen Cunningham admits that she has “lost faith in idea of following the gray whale migration, in the whales themselves, and most of all in .” In this unflinching memoir, she takes us on a journey with her two-year-old, Max, as they follow the gray whales through the Pacific Ocean. Through this migration, in which she recalls memories of living in Alaska’s northernmost town, she finds the courage she needs to push forward as a parent, even in a time of enormous uncertainty.

A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings by Helen Jukes

In a new house, in a new town, and newly in her 30s, Helen Jukes is not sure of very much in her life. The one thing that keeps her grounded and connected to her community is her hive. She has been given a colony of bees by a friend and embarks on the year-long process of keeping them and learning their ways. It is safe to say that Jukes learns as much about herself as she does about bees in this process. This memoir is ideal for linguists and beekeepers alike, as well as those looking to find their place in the world.

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Helen Macdonald is a spectacular observer of the natural world, with an eye trained toward the sky. After the sudden loss of her father, she channels her grief into the raising of a goshawk, a large, vicious raptor. She has long loved birds—especially hawks—but the goshawk is an intense and deadly creature. While she finds healing, she also finds community, and a remarkable kinship with the natural world. H is for Hawk, like books by Thoreau or Muir, is an inventive, instant classic.

Pig Years by Ellyn Gaydos

Many nature memoirists focus on gentle images: wind rustling, birds flying, fresh green plants. But not Ellyn Gaydos, a seasonal farmer in New England, who shares the gory alongside the sublime in her memoir. She successfully evokes the life of a farmer—crops can fail or blight can set in, spelling tragedy for the workers. Even when things go right, when beloved pigs are meant to be slaughtered, hard work is tinged with loss. Pig Years is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the food they eat and land they live on.

World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

There is something so beautiful about seeing the natural world through the eyes of a poet. While World of Wonders is styled as essays, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, a poet by trade, does not lose her lyric sensibility in this incredible collection. She approaches the places she has lived—Kansas, Arizona, western New York, Ohio, a brief stint in Greece—with bright, open eyes and makes common sights appear wonderful. As a bonus, there’s Fumi Nakamura’s illustrations, which highlight Nezhukumatahil’s delight.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for a reason. Dillard, settled in the Roanoke Valley in Virginia, is a master of documenting the subtle movement of a landscape over the course of four seasons. She lets her mind wander, and it returns with perfect imagery, ranging far beyond her home. Although Dillard is not a scientist, she examines her surroundings with precision and lets her curiosity fill in the gaps. She makes the ordinary extraordinary, as the best nature writers do.

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Maddie Woda is a graduate of Columbia University in New York City with a degree in English. She has writing published in The Maine Review, The Columbia Review, Dead Fern Press, The Emerson Review, and others. She currently lives in Brooklyn and is an editor at Zibby Books.