“I'd suffered many losses in recent years after my father mother uncle aunt and cousin had all passed away. In her final years my mother often lamented that there was no one alive who had known her as a girl and I was starting to understand how spooked she'd felt. I wasn't sure I could take any more abandonments. One succumbs so easily to mind spasms, worry spasms. [p. 95]”

American poet, essayist, and naturalist

Diane Ackerman is an American poet, essayist, and naturalist known for her books and films. Her writing often moves between the literary and the scientific, reflecting a wide-ranging interest in the natural world. She has also worked in film, and her work is associated with careful observation, vivid language, and an interest in how people experience nature and the senses.