🍃 Reciprocity: the interview
6 questions for Bill Davison
Nature writer, n. A person who delights in paying attention, being astonished, and telling about it.1
“One of the side effects of becoming completely absorbed in nature is that when you return to your senses, you often feel unmoored and lost. What was important before now seems less so. I find myself increasingly disconnected from our mainstream culture. For me, this is mostly a good thing. I want to be lost to artifice and at home in a genuine existence..” ~ Bill Davison
Welcome to Season 2 of the Reciprocity interviews. My inbox is full of treasure in the form of lovingly observed writing about place, encounters both wild and gentle, imaginative kinship and renewed reciprocity. These thoughtful, talented writers kindled in me the desire to learn more about them.
Today’s guest, , is an award-winning wildlife photographer, biologist, farmer, and agroforester, on a joyful journey to share his love of nature with others.
Bill grew up in northern Ohio, where his dad worked as a mechanic and his mom raised four kids. When he was born his mother was transitioning out of an Old Order Amish community. He spent most of his childhood outdoors and worked on farms throughout high school. He then joined the Army and used the GI Bill to pay for college. Bill worked as a biologist for The Nature Conservancy and spent seven years running his own organic vegetable farm. He transitioned out of farming and worked as an Extension Educator for the University of Illinois. During that time, he started an urban food forest in a local park. That led him to work with tree crops and, ultimately, a job in agroforestry with the Savanna Institute.
Bill’s uplifting stories and moving photographs always make my day and stay with me long after reading. Like this one about the Honorable Harvest, and this two-parter about rescuing a baby owl. In a sensitive consideration of crows, Bill writes:
“The challenge is to attempt to relate to them without obscuring who they are with preconceived ideas.”
Bill’s strategy for dealing with the mental burden of the world’s worries is to add wildness to the spaces around him, including his own yard! In transforming this space, he’s been able to attract more than 100 species of birds while maintaining an organic garden with delicious fruits and vegetables. This space has become his sanctuary and an oasis for birds and other wildlife.
You can do the same!
Join Bill for a thoughtful weekly discussion about re-wilding your piece of the world and finding peace in a time of uncertainty. It doesn’t matter if you have a large yard or a balcony … you can create pockets of wildness anywhere. This will make you feel at home among kindred spirits.
Why are you drawn to nature writing?
My writing helps me process and clarify the experiences I have in nature. This helps me navigate the experience of being human. I am also a nature photographer, and one of my primary motivations for writing is to try and express, in words, the ineffable beauty of birds.
I have always been drawn to birds, and now, at 53, I am learning that the more I can come into stillness within myself, the more the boundaries between me and the birds become diffuse. I write to break through boundaries, to dispel my ego, and to join the flock.
How does writing about nature affect you, in your work or personal life?
I started a new writing project with colleagues at my work at the Savanna Institute. This quickly led to a fulfilling collaboration on an essay for a forthcoming book on tree crops being published by Island Press. Our next project is to pitch an American persimmon book to Chelsea Green.
My personal plan for 2025 is to pitch a collection of my Easy By Nature essays to Chelsea Green. I want to help more people become intensely curious about nature. I believe birds can help people appreciate nature and the wellspring of creativity that lies within them.
Writing has taken hold of my life; the process of creative expression provides structure and meaning in my personal life. I’ve organized my life around writing. I minimize distractions and pay close attention to the quality of my inputs. These include podcasts from Tim Ferris, Rich Roll, Tara Brach, and Charles Eisenstein. The writing of Maria Popova on The Marginalian is another source of inspiration. Beyond that, I read books every day. I read diverse books on Buddhism, self-help, and nature, with a little fiction thrown in to expose me to different styles of writing. I also read the scientific literature when I’m researching a topic.
While outside, have you ever experienced feeling small, lost or in danger?
When I have close encounters with wildlife, I often experience myself shrinking and fading into the background. The whole world can condense down into the eye of a finch.
One of the side effects of becoming completely absorbed in nature is that when you return to your senses, you often feel unmoored and lost. What was important before now seems less so. I find myself increasingly disconnected from our mainstream culture. For me, this is mostly a good thing. I want to be lost to artifice and at home in a genuine existence.
Of course, there is a very real danger in the separation. You risk becoming somewhat independent and more aligned with your core values. This will alienate some people. Danger in nature is different. I’ve sensed danger while hunting, in the presence of grizzly bears, floating rivers, and fishing. In all cases, I felt exhilarated by the experience.
What’s a favorite memory of nature from your childhood?
When I was around eight, I caught an American Woodcock in my butterfly net. When I pulled this fantastical creature out of the net and looked into his eyes my fate was sealed. I became a lover of birds in that moment.
What do you hope for, for your writing?
I hope to continuously improve and evolve as a writer. I want to capture the beauty. I experience in nature and share it with others. I want my words to sing like a Carolina Wren. I want to be boisterous and full of life. I want to animate the page and the minds of readers. I want to bring people to tears. I want to elicit a depth of feeling that prompts caring, love, and action that benefits people and wildlife.
I want my writing to clarify my thinking and take me on a journey of self discovery. I want to amaze myself and get caught up in a virtuous cycle of stillness and amazement and stillness and amazement.
A writer or other creative artist who makes you hopeful for humanity and the earth.
Mary Oliver is the writer who inspires me the most. I grew up in northern Ohio, just outside of Cleveland. This is not far from where Mary Oliver grew up. I take solace in this proximity. We both had a challenging childhood, and we retreated into nature to cope. I can now see, at 53, that I will always be most comfortable when alone in nature, just like Mary Oliver. Now, if I can just capture a sliver of the magic she possessed!
I find her writing to be incredibly powerful and beautiful. She can bring me to tears with a single word. Her mastery of poetry is awe inspiring. I secretly aspire to write poetry, but I am currently trapped on a prose treadmill.
She is my guiding light. My hope is that as I age my spirit and writing come into alignment and condense into a pure expression of love and gratitude.
Each season, we donate 30% of paid subscriptions to a worthy environmental cause. This season, it’s Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International. For The Earth And All Generations - Women Are Rising For Climate Justice & Community-Led Solutions. Track past and current recipients here.
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Notes and links
If you’d like to participate in this interview series, please DM me on chat, or reach out via email: gabrielli-dot-julie-at-gmail. Find previous interviews here.
For more inspired nature writing and artwork from the best of Substack, check out the articles in NatureStack journal.
In further service to Substack’s nature writers,
curates this lovely directory of nature-focused writers:
thanks, Mary Oliver
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I love Bill!!!! What an explosive, genuine love. I could feel his adoration for nature in every sentence, just as he feels in Mary Oliver’s poetry. 🙏
One of my faves that I prob met thru you, Julie. I’m so grateful for the ways you share about the ppl who inspire you because I always find them inspiring too.