Virtual Author Talk: Hidden Nature: Wild Southern Caves

Join Union Ave Books and Ijams for a virtual book event with Michael Taylor to discuss his new book, Hidden Nature: WIld Southern Caves. Michael will be joined by Margaret Renkl, author of Late Migrations. This free event takes place on Zoom. Please email RSVP@unionavebooks.com to attend and include the title of the book, Hidden Nature, in the subject line. You'll receive a Zoom link the day of the event.

Preorder the book here: https://unionavebooks.indielite.org/book/9780826501028

DESCRIPTION

More than 10,000 known caves lie beneath the state of Tennessee according to the Tennessee Cave Survey, a nonprofit organization that catalogs and maps them. Thousands more riddle surrounding states. In Hidden Nature, Taylor tells the story of this vast underground wilderness. In addition to describing the sheer physical majesty of the region's wild caverns and the concurrent joys and dangers of exploring them, he examines their rich natural history and scientific import, their relationship to clean water and a healthy surface environment, and their uncertain future.

As a longtime caver and the author of three popular books related to caving, Taylor enjoys (for a journalist) unusual access to this secretive world. He is personally acquainted with many of the region's most accomplished cave explorers and scientists, and they in turn are familiar with his popular writing on caves in books; in magazines such as Audubon, Outside, and Sports Illustrated; and on websites for the Discovery Channel and the PBS science series, Nova.

"Hidden Nature is structured as a comprehensive work of well-researched fact that reads like a personal narrative of the author's long attraction to these caves and the people who dare enter their hidden chambers."--George Singleton.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

Michael Ray Taylor, professor of communication, chairs the Communication and Theatre Department at Henderson State University in Arkansas. He is the author of several books, including Cave Passages, Dark Life, and Caves, as well as articles in Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, Houston Chronicle, Wired, Audubon, Reader's Digest, Outside, and many other print and digital publications.

Margaret Renkl is the author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss. Her work also has appeared in Guernica, Literary Hub, Oxford American, River Teeth, and The Sewanee Review, among others. A graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Carolina, she lives in Nashville. She was the founding editor of Chapter 16, the daily literary publication of Humanities Tennessee.