Readers: Books and Conversation with Inga Simpson

Inga Simpson has written 7 works of fiction, children’s picture books and non-fiction about trees. She’s written essays and some short stories before but this is her first collection of short stories and its beautiful.

This new collection has 11 stories and one poem and the stories are told from a wide variety of different perspectives. One is told through the eyes of a Gannet colony, another through the perspective of a platypus, also one from the perspective of an ice shelf, and an incredible one from the perspective of a tree.

Most if not all of the characters we meet in these stories are people who feel drawn to nature, who feel at one with nature (sometimes literally), & who feel at home in the natural world and with animal, bird, marine life. In many of these stories humans are yearning to be wildlife.

Inga Simpson has a deep gift for writing about the natural world and the way we are in it and with it. It was wonderful to feature her and this collection in our March Readers event at the Petersham Bowling Club.