The Season of Birds and Stones

A wide-ranging collection of essays that engages with the natural world through encounters in national parks and other wild places

The essays that make up The Season of Birds and Stones grapple with questions of what wilderness means and how we can interact with and learn from other species. Set in some of our most stunning public lands, including Denali National Park and Preserve, Great Basin National Park, Isle Royale National Park, and Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Renfro’s essays examine her encounters with bears, arctic ground squirrels, loons, red-winged blackbirds, moose, and wolves, as she wrestles with a range of subjects including motherhood, mental illness, grief, and darkness. Whether focusing on bears in Alaska or the darkness of the Upper Peninsula, searching for moose bones on Isle Royale or seeking out her past self in the landscape of Great Basin, her essays are rooted in the natural world but also in storytelling—the stories we tell about ourselves, the stories we tell about others, and the stories we tell about other species. Both deeply personal and meticulously researched, Renfro’s essays seek to illuminate the natural world and show its deep relevance and resonance in all of our lives.