Town Hall Seattle Science Series

It’s only human to project the notions we already hold onto the world around us. We want to feel connected, and we start from what we know – categories, similarities, rules, expectations. But nature is endlessly expansive, at once wildly different from the societies we are used to and yet surprisingly similar to the nuances we hold as individuals. In her debut book Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, author Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian invites readers to wander off the prescribed trails and embrace the full range of what we can take away from unexpected corners of the natural world. Growing up, Kaishian felt most at home in some of these less-traveled pockets – namely, the swamps and culverts near her house in the Hudson Valley, studded with wildlife and odd creatures. As a child who frequently felt out of place – too much of one thing or not enough of another – she found acceptance in these settings, mainly among amphibious beings. In snakes, snails, and especially fungi, she saw her own develo