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Sign up todaySoil
The Story of a Black Mother's Garden
Narrator
Camille T Dungy
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Length
10 hours 16 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Part nature writing, part exploration of the African diaspora and Black identity, part memoir, Dungy puts herself in conversation with all the white nature writers who've come before - Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson - and exposes how a monoculture in both cultivars and cultural backgrounds threatens us and the future of our planet. She argues diverse, intersectional discourse is our best means of achieving true environmental justice. With beautiful, incisive prose, this is one of my favorite books of the year so far. The author herself narrates the book and her personality shines in the reading. There are also moments where she sings little songs with her young daughter - an utterly charming audio-only experience.”
— Mariah • Dog-Eared Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Having had the honor of attending one of the release events and getting to listen author herself read, I can confidently say this audiobook comes as a close second. I’ve also read the print edition and enjoy the map and photography. Soil is a magnificent meditation on the interconnections of life all around us, starting from the beautiful and humble flower all the way to the systems of power that elevate or oppress our own blooming.”
— Sterling • Old Firehouse Books
Bookseller recommendation
“A smart, beautiful, wide-ranging book about the author’s garden and her world. Observed with a poet’s eye and deeply concerned with social justice, history, and community. Even if you don’t think you’re interested in gardening, this book will draw you in and change how you look at the world around you. ”
— Robin • Books & Books @ The Studios of Key West
Bookseller recommendation
“'History is perennial', Dungy writes as she muses on her decision to withhold the death of a beloved garden bunny from her young daughter while choosing to discuss another police murder of an unarmed Black person. Part nature writing, part exploration of the African diaspora and Black identity, part memoir, Dungy puts herself in conversation with all the white nature writers who've come before - Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson - and exposes how a monoculture in both cultivars and cultural backgrounds threatens us and the future of our planet. She argues diverse, intersectional discourse is our best means of achieving true environmental justice. With beautiful, incisive prose, this is one of my favorite books of the year so far. The author herself narrates the book and her personality shines in the reading. There are also moments where she sings little songs with her young daughter - an utterly charming audio-only experience.”
— Mariah • Dog-Eared Books
A “heartfelt and thoroughly enriching” (Aimee Nezhukumatathil, New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders) work that expands on how we talk about the natural world and the environment as National Book Critics Circle finalist Camille T. Dungy diversifies her garden to reflect her heritage.
In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013, with her husband and daughter, the community held strict restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens.
In resistance to the homogenous policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earth, Dungy employs the various plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers she grows in her garden as metaphor and treatise for how homogeneity threatens the future of our planet, and why cultivating diverse and intersectional language in our national discourse about the environment is the best means of protecting it.
“Brilliant and beautiful” (Ross Gay, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights), Soil functions as the nexus of nature writing, environmental justice, and prose to encourage you to recognize the relationship between the people of the African diaspora and the land on which they live, and to understand that wherever soil rests beneath their feet is home.
Camille T. Dungy is the author of the essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has edited three anthologies, including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. Her honors include the 2021 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an American Book Award. She is a University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.
Camille T. Dungy is the author of the essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has edited three anthologies, including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. Her honors include the 2021 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an American Book Award. She is a University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.
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