In this episode, Lauren Camp, (02.38) Poet Laureate of New Mexico, speaks with Ann Wallace about her recent collection Worn Smooth Between Devourings (NYQ Books, 2023), as well as In Old Sky, forthcoming in April from Grand Canyon Conservancy. We discuss the intensification of attention required for writing the desert landscape, the limits and opportunities offered by language, and the ways that a place can transform us.

We then hear from Dr. Randi Eckel (32.33) who answers a listener's question about fragrant native plants for the garden in a new installment of Ask Randi. And Kim Correro speaks with Hailey Brock, (41.41) owner of The Nature of Reading Bookshop in Madison, NJ, discusses her store’s unique environmental focus on nature writing, climate change, and seasonal reading, as well as a new book club. Hailey is one of NPSNJ’s partners in Leaning Toward Light: A Celebration of Poetry and Native Plants, to be held at the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts in Madison on April 10.

Then Uli Lorimer, (50.22) Director of Horticulture at the Native Plant Trust and author of The Northeast Native Plant Primer (Timber Press), speaks with us about working with native plants at Garden in the Woods, the importance of straight species, and efforts to increase the availability of genetically diverse and source-identified native plant seeds in the northeast.