Birds Art Life

A writer’s intimate and exuberant search for creativity, meaning, and solace leads her to birdwatching in this “profound, charming memoir of art, books, life—and birds” (Minneapolis Star Tribune).

One winter, Kyo Maclear becomes unmoored. Her father has recently fallen ill, and she suddenly finds herself lost for words. As a writer, she can no longer bring herself to create. But then Kyo meets a musician who loves birds. Intrigued, she finds herself following the musician for a year, accompanying him on his urban birding expeditions; the sounds of birds in the city reminding them both to look outwards at the world.

Through her engagement with the natural world, she begins to rediscover the joys of the everyday and to reconnect with her creative self. The core lessons of birding, it turns out, take on surprising relevance when applied to aspects of art and life. Divided into the twelve months of a calendar year, Birds Art Life is an astute memoir of connection and discovery and a distilled, crystal-like homage to chasing after birds in an urban environment. It offers a gentle, necessary rejoinder to the crush of modern life with its demands for faster, bigger, more and entreats us to pause, watch, listen, and above all savor and protect the small and significant.