I’m thrilled to announce that Catapult Books will publish my nonfiction book, The Age of Deer, in January!
The Age of Deer will also be published in the U.K. by Icon Books. More info, and preorder link, is here!
I traveled from Texas to England and many places in between to report this, and it’s been an adventure. I’m very excited to share what I learned and open a conversation about our ties to the natural world, and what natural means in the first place.
“Extraordinary and absorbing, The Age of Deer proves John Muir’s notion that when we pick out one thing in the universe we find it hitched to everything else. Howsare understands that we live in an age of numbness when ‘few of us are willing to really feel,’ and suggests, through the lives of deer and her experience with them, an elemental antidote.” —David Gessner, author of Return of the Osprey and All the Wild That Remains
“By paying close attention to an animal often seen but rarely observed, Howsare reveals that deer are far more mysterious and complicated—and far more deeply embedded in our lives and collective histories—than they may seem. The Age of Deer is a wonderfully perceptive, absorbing, and rewarding exploration of life in all its interconnected forms.” — Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction
“Erika Howsare has written a fascinating and brilliantly researched book on deer. She has an ear for the conundrums and contradictions of our entanglements with these creatures, who increasingly occupy a middle ground between wild and domestic, survivors of our species’ worst predations. This is also a book about nature, culture, and our nationhood—an interrogation of the American project as that story continues to unfold across our deer-happy landscape.” —Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of A Woven World
“A warm, engaging, and thoughtful look at what matters to deer and what they mean to us. Howsare is fascinated by the paradoxical status of an animal we all think we know: Not tame, but not quite wild either; fetishized by some, resented by others; all too common, and yet impossible to ignore. I highly recommend it!” —Nate Blakslee, author of American Wolf
“In her lyrical and revelatory The Age of Deer, Erika Howsare crafts the definitive account of humanity’s longstanding dependence on the lovely creatures, their prominent place in myth and legend, and our modern failures to live peaceably alongside them. A cautionary (but often beautiful) tale of good intentions gone awry.” —Earl Swift, author of Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings
“The Age of Deer joins a growing canon of fresh treatments of wild creatures that are anciently enmeshed in the human story. And as Howsare reminds us in her warm, relaxed style, we will always have such a relationship with deer. The next one you see is going to intrigue you in a whole new way.” —Dan Flores, New York Times bestselling author of Coyote America and Wild New World
“I carried The Age of Deer in my pack for a few days through a canyon in Colorado, and it was a great complement to the lopsided slopes of fallen trees and the sound of roaring water. The deer is due its storyteller and Howsare takes the role with smartness and grace.” —Craig Childs, author of Tracing Time, House of Rain, and The Secret Knowledge of Water
Born and raised in southwestern Pennsylvania, I earned a BA at Oberlin College and hold an MFA from Brown University. I’m also the author of two books of poetry and my essays, reviews, and interviews are found at places like The Rumpus, The Los Angeles Review of Books, LongReads, and The Brooklyn Rail. One of my essays was named a notable mention in The Best American Food Writing of 2020 and The Best American Science and Nature Writing of 2020. Along with my husband and two daughters, I live in the Blue Ridge of central Virginia, where I work in local journalism and teach writing in the community.