Award-winning local author David Haskell will be discussing his new book The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors on Thursday, April 18, at 7 p.m. in UTC’s Benwood Auditorium (EMCS 230, 735 Vine St). Tickets are $10 (students $5), and proceeds will benefit the Tennessee River Gorge Trust.
Mr. Haskell is a professor of biology at Sewanee, The University of the South. His first book The Forest Unseen (Viking Penguin, 2012) garnered numerous awards including winner of the 2013 Best Book Award from the National Academies, finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, runner-up for the 2013 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, winner of the 2013 Reed Environmental Writing Award, and winner of the 2012 National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature. Critics have praised his eloquent writing and deep engagement with the natural world.
The Songs of Trees examines the biological networks that surround all species, including humans. He explores these connections in the context of a dozen trees in far flung locations from the Amazon rainforest to Japan and from Jerusalem to Manhattan.
The April 18th event will include a talk and readings by Haskell and a book signing. Deborah Blum, Pulitzer winner and director of the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT said of the book, “Haskell may be the finest literary nature writer working today. The Songs of Trees – compelling, lyrical, wise – is a case in point. Don’t miss it.”
Proceeds from the event will benefit the Tennessee River Gorge Trust, whose mission is to preserve the Tennessee River Gorge as a healthy and productive resource through land protection, education, community engagement, and good land stewardship practices.
This event is sponsored by the UTC Department of Biology, Geology & Environmental Science in partnership with Chatt About Science. Chatt About Science is Chattanooga’s science café, a monthly series of lively discussions about science topics.
Tickets for this event are available. Mr. Haskell’s book can be purchased at the event, in stores, or online.