Your lifetime of interest in the natural world sparked the columns for the local newspaper, from which this book was created. Talk about that interest and what it has meant to you.

Exploring in nature has been both my greatest pleasure and my greatest teacher since I was a small child. When I am outdoors, I am always alert to what is going on around me, from the small plants and flowers at my feet to the distant shapes of birds in flight. I always have my binoculars with me, and usually carry field guides in case I find something I am not familiar with. I often spend time sitting quietly alone, waiting for whatever comes along. When I am sad, the natural world is a source of comfort, and when I am happy, it increases my joy.

You spent a year alone in a tiny cabin in the woods while earning your master’s degree in environmental science. What was that like and what was the result of that year?

That was a solitary year of contemplation, study, and writing. It was the first time I had lived alone, literally in the lap of nature. My cabin was in a clearing in the woods surrounded by white pines, with the Ashuelot River flowing nearby. My closest neighbors were a family of beavers. I had no plumbing and heated with a woodstove. I remember how when spring came after the deep snows of winter, it seemed to wash over the landscape like a flood—so different from the spring in Cambridge. Mass., where I had been living before, with its cultivated gardens and non-native trees. The outcome of that year was that I realized I wanted to live closer to nature, and I ended up moving to Isle au Haut.

Island Naturalist won a 2015 Maine Literary Award (John N. Cole Award for Maine-themed Nonfiction)—your and Penobscot Books’ first award, and the book continues to be one of our bestsellers. What does that mean to you?

I am very proud to have won that award! I remember the award ceremony so well. I was sitting in the audience waiting for the award to be announced, hoping. And then my name, and my book, were called, and I walked up to the stage to give a thank you speech. I felt like I had won an Oscar!

Is Isle au Haut still your home?

I still live on Isle au Haut six months of the year, from mid-April through October. I still study the natural history of the coast of Maine, and I still grow my big garden, swim in our beautiful lake every day in summer, and walk the National Park trails throughout the spring, summer, and fall.

What are you working on now?

For the past five years, I have been working on writing poetry.