Welcome to The Write Question, a program that explores the world of writing and publishing in the western United States. Our guest today is Kim Todd from Missoula, Montana.

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Todd’s book, Chrysalis, Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, looks at the life of a pioneering explorer/naturalist who traveled to South America in 1699 to study insect metamorphosis. The New Yorker called it a "spellbinding biography" and Kirkus Reviews lauded it as "a breathtaking example of scholarship and storytelling."

Tinkering with Eden, Todd’s first book, received the PEN/Jerard Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award and was selected as one of Booklist’s Top Ten Science/Technical Books .

Todd’s articles and essays have appeared in Orion, Sierra Magazine, California Wild, and Grist, among others. Todd is a senior fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program.

Read a review of Chrysalis on The New Yorker Web site.

A review of Chrysalis by Laurence A. Marschall for Natural History Magazine.

Recently published books by regional writers include, Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild, by Craig Childs from Crawford, Colorado.

A new addition to FarCountry Press’s Go Wild for Puzzles! series: Glacier National Park, fun facts , mazes, games, puzzles, and jokes for children ages 5 to 8, written and illustrated by Robert Rath from Bozeman, Montana.

For more information about new books, contact your favorite bookseller or library.

And here’s a quote from The New Yorker about Chrysalis: "In this spellbinding biography, Todd interweaves the life of Maria Sibylla Merian, a German artist and naturalist who became famous in the seventeenth century for her engravings of caterpillars, with the intellectual and scientific history of metamorphosis."

The Write Question is produced by Chérie Newman.

Executive producer, Michael Marsolek.

Special thanks to Barbara Theroux, Prageeta Sharma, Renée McGrath, and Kim Anderson.

This program is supported in part by The Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans. And by Humanities Montana, enriching intellectual, cultural, and civic life for all Montanans.

This program included music by Michael Blessing and Springhill.

Send comments to Chérie Newman

Guests on the The Write Question are writers, publishers, and illustrators living, or working for an extended period of time, in the western United States. The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.