Phoebe McIlwain Bright
OSGF
Q&A With Phoebe McIlwain Bright
Tell us a little about yourself - whatever you think is important to know!
I hold an MFA from the University of Oregon. I enjoy picking thimbleberries, gathering morels, and watching ouzels pop out of rivers in surprising places. And I’ve always been pulled in by stories. As a kid, I was an avid reader and fascinated by listening to adults talk and tell tales among themselves. Now that I’m an adult, the awe of being caught up in a story still hasn’t gone away.
How have the events of the past year impacted your writing practice? How have they changed your relationship with the natural world?
Staying at home during the pandemic has made my writing practice more consistent. And it’s made me realize how important writing is to me -- how I need the meaning and questions it poses.
The past year has also made me even more grateful for the natural world. I’ve been heartened by how an appreciation for nature seems to be moving into a place of shared, national focus. Not that people didn’t already value nature, but there seems to be a growing recognition of the need to do a better job of protecting it.
Historically, what ideas, issues, and subject matter(s) have inspired your work?
My relationship with the natural world, living in a rural community, and my own experiences as a woman all feed into my writing. I also studied Behavioral Biology in college, and four years of focusing on that topic probably influences my writing in more ways than I realize.
Tell us about “Tropic Cascade” the piece you submitted for the OSGF blog. What inspired you to write this piece, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
On an immediate level, “Trophic Cascade” was born out of encountering wolves in the wild for the first time -- and then, two days later, seeing wolves that had been killed. But it also draws on longer-term conversations and thinking about how people interact with apex predators.
How wolves change landscapes and human behaviors is a complex and dynamic topic that I’ve just scraped the surface of. But I hope that readers take away an awareness for what a truly intact ecosystem would look like where they live, and also that they’ll remember how closely related we are to other mammalian predators. We aren’t separate from the natural world; we’re part of it.
What creative projects are you currently working on?
I have a couple essays and stories I’m working on, but my main project right now is that I’m wrapping up a novel.
What are you reading right now?
I’m reading Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half and Ben Goldfarb’s Eager: The Secret, Surprising Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.
What is your favorite plant?
I think I have to go with western redcedar (thuja plicata). Redcedars hold an important emotional significance for me. I find them both beautiful and comforting. At every stage of their life cycles, they’re doing something interesting -- from growing in rings as saplings to having hollow centers in old age that you can crawl inside of.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Just that I’m grateful for OSGF’s support. An organization that builds conversations and community around plants is vital to our health as a society.
Images courtesy of Phoebe McIlwain Bright