In Soul Friend and Other Love Notes to the Natural World, author and naturalist Sheila McEntee artfully conveys her deep love of the natural world and the solace she finds there. In twelve brief personal essays, spanning 20 years, she explores the flora and fauna in Appalachian forests, on the shores of the Potomac River, and, especially, in her own backyard, as she navigates the joys and trials of an introspective life: love, loss, death, loneliness, intimacy, uncertainty, and, ultimately, self-knowing and self-acceptance. In this small volume, we learn that nature teaches resiliency, and to be present to it is to find joy. Indeed, there is no heartache or struggle for which it does not offer comfort.
Sheila McEntee Writer, editor, and naturalist Sheila McEntee’ s essays have been featured in Stonecrop Review, The Brevity Blog, Still: The Journal, and Woods Reader, among other publications, and on West Virginia Public Radio. Sheila wrote for Wonderful West Virginia magazine for many years, and from 2006 to 2014 was that publication’ s editor. In Soul Friend, a number of her essays appear together for the first time. Raised in Cheverly, Maryland, and Hingham, Massachusetts, she is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross.
Location: Charleston, WV
