Nature Obscura: A City’s Hidden Natural World
About this audiobook
A distinctive, funny, inspiring, and intimate dive into urban nature.
With wonder and a sense of humor, Nature Obscura author Kelly Brenner aims to help us rediscover our connection to the natural world that is just outside our front door—we just need to know where to look.
Through explorations of a rich and varied urban landscape, Brenner reveals the complex micro-habitats and surprising nature found in the middle of a city. In her hometown of Seattle, which has plowed down hills, cut through the land to connect fresh- and saltwater, and paved over much of the rest, she exposes a diverse range of strange and unknown creatures. From shore to wetland, forest to neighborhood park, and graveyard to backyard, Brenner uncovers how our land alterations have impacted nature, for good and bad, through the wildlife and plants that live alongside us, often unseen. These stories meld together, in the same way our ecosystems, species, and human history are interconnected across the urban environment.
About the author
Kelly Brenner is a naturalist, writer, and photographer based in Seattle. She grew up in the Pacific Northwest and has explored much of the region while investigating the local flora and fauna. After earning a degree in landscape architecture in 2009, she founded the Metropolitan Field Guide and continues to write on her website about urban nature, books, poetry, folklore, and a variety of other natural history topics. She has been published in Crosscut, National Wildlife Magazine, and The Open Notebook, among others. She is active on Twitter (@KellyBrenner) where she shares nature observations and photos and hosts regular science games.
Erica Sullivan is a professional actress of both stage and screen and holds her MFA from the Yale School of Drama. Currently a company member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, she has performed in New York and regionally with such companies as the Lincoln Center, Soho Repertory Theatre, and New Dramatists. She makes her home in Ashland, Oregon, with her family.
