Earlier this month, Chapter 16 published my Q&A with children’s author Shannon Hitchcock about her new picture book, Of Words & Water. This book offers a beautiful introduction to the life and work of Appalachian author and environmentalist Wilma Dykeman. I loved Of Words and Water, which places Dykeman’s life & work in a lyrical, atmospheric context created by mixed-media illustrations by Sophie Page. Dykeman’s devotion to the natural world was deeply inspiring, and I hope more folks learn about her work. A few years ago, I had the chance to write about her memoir, Family of Earth. That book, which was discovered in manuscript form after her death, perfectly captures Dykeman’s ethos, as embodied in this line from an early chapter: “The life of one human is the life of every other living thing on earth.”