MEET PRIYANKA
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU APPLES
Priyanka Kumar’s book, The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit, will be published next month.
Name: Priyanka Kumar.
Currently: My book, The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit, will be published next month. Apple trees have a magnetic power that can draw us back into nature. We’re hardwired to like juicy, crisp fruit (as opposed to dry and mealy fruit!) – and apples come in magically diverse shapes, sizes, colours, and flesh. In this book, the most entrancing orchards – where I felt like Alice in Wonderland – are ones nestled against a forest. Some of the same principles that lead to healthy orchards – biodiverse flora, living soil, and pollinator diversity – also make for healthy forests. So orchards not only bring us physically closer to nature but are also an attractive window through which we can know forests better.
My work in 50 words: My last book, Conversations With Birds, traces my movements across the American West, bringing to life my relationships with birds – from the mango-coloured western tanager who rescued me from a bout of altitude sickness in Sequoia National Park to ancient sandhill cranes in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.
My favourite line in poetry: While there are many poems I could choose from, these lines by Basho, written in the spring of 1667, and translated by Andrew Fitzsimons, fit the mood of my new book:
A Weeping Cherry
As I turn away to leave
reeling I’m reeled in
Favourite colours: Blue and green.
Favourite movie: Recently, I was moved after watching Ocean with David Attenborough at my local indie theater.
Favourite musicians: Birds, especially meadowlarks and owls.
Favourite songs: The song of the ivory-billed woodpecker who is now unfortunately extinct.
Favourite ice cream flavour: Chocolate.
Favourite cuisine: Vegetarian.
Favourite author: The list would be too long. Among the books I’m reading at the moment, I’d like to single out a wonderful series by Yale University Press called Why I Write. I am reading an advanced reader’s edition of Into the Weeds by Lydia Davis – the book takes exciting risks and is simply exquisite.
The Light Between Apple Trees by Priyanka Kumar is published by Island Press, USD 32.
I hang out: In Nature.
Tips to save the planet: When we’re ruthless toward nature, we undercut our own well-being. Bringing a tenderness to our relationship with birds, orchards, and forests is one of the most transformative things we can do.
In a perfect world: We wouldn’t eat industrially grown food which poisons our bodies, rivers, and the land and its multitude of creatures.
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