Margaret Renkl’s writing encourages readers to behold the beauty of the natural world. It’s no wonder, then, that her new essay collection “The Comfort of Crows” is a stunning work of art in itself.
Renkl will discuss her new book at Mississippi University for Women on Thursday at 6 p.m. in Nissan Auditorium as part of the Honors Forum lecture series presented by the Ina E. Gordy Honors College. The event will be moderated by Randi Robison, Natural Resource Program Manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Nashville-based writer has developed a national reputation as a voice of the South with the popular column she writes each Monday for the New York Times. “The Comfort of Crows,” which comes out this week, is Renkl’s third book.
In “The Comfort of Crows,” Renkl assembles a year’s worth of reflections, one for each week organized by the four seasons. Each essay is framed by a full-color illustration created by her brother Billy Renkl, an accomplished artist.
“The Comfort of Crows” is a book that readers can return to all year long for inspiration to find the beauty and joy in each day. Through her acute observations about her own surroundings, Renkl elucidates universal truths and challenges readers to slow down in their busy lives and embrace their own seasons of change.
Many of her essays ruminate on specific memories of encounters with wildlife and plants, including her attempts to catch a sick fox and the toads she and her brother raised during their childhood in Alabama. Readers here in Possumtown will be glad to know she even includes an ode to the opossum in a piece titled “Loving the Unloved Animals.”
Peppered throughout the collection are additional short prose poems meditating on ephemeral subjects which she calls praise songs. It also includes quotations from some of her own favorite books and writers including nods to Mississippi writers Eudora Welty and Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
A kit for book clubs reading “The Comfort of Crows” is available on the author’s website at margaretrenkl.com.
Emily Liner is the owner of Friendly City Books, an independent bookstore and press in Columbus.
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