This year marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and professor at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, combines Indigenous environmental knowledge with Western science into sustainable stewardship techniques by which humans can better coexist physically and spiritually with the natural world. Braiding Sweetgrass has inspired millions of readers and became a major bestseller when an updated gift edition was released in 2020. In 2022, Braiding Sweetgrass was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith with illustrations by Nicole Neidhardt.
Last year, Kimmerer received a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. She also won the John Burroughs Medal for her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (2003). Braiding Sweetgrass received the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award and, as of 2021, has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. It is available in hardcover and paperback from Milkweed Editions. The YA adaptation is available from Zest Books. --Tobias Mutter
