Finding the Right Balance--in Writing & in Life
Erin Zimmerman on Botany, Memoir, and Motherhood
“Writing and science are both callings. We as a society will take as much as we can from people who do their work because they love it and will do it anyway for no pay. Devotion will get you a long way, but eventually if you don’t see return in terms of income, stability, recognition …” —Erin Zimmerman
Preview: Episode 110 Erin Zimmerman on the choices writers must make
How do we find the right balance—between work and not work, family and career, alone time and community, doing what we love for passion and needing recognition and remuneration? In this episode of Emerging Form we speak with botanist, writer and mother Erin Zimmerman about the making of her new memoir, Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood and the Fight to Save an Old Science.
Erin Zimmerman is an evolutionary biologist turned science writer and essayist. She studied at the University of Guelph and at the Université de Montréal before traveling to South America to collect plant specimens, and then working at the Royal Botanic Gardens in England. In addition to her academic writing, her essays have appeared in publications including Smithsonian Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Undark, and Narratively.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
If you listen to the podcast, you know that almost every episode includes someone talking about walking or running as an important part of their creative process—and I loved this interview in Plume with my friend and poet James Crews with editor and poet Michael Simms about how a rural landscape has changed his practice, his work with his mentor, working with his husband, and the intersection of politics and poetry.
The writings of Brother Dave Steindl-Rast are always so clear. In this article, Spirituality as Common Sense, which by the way, James quotes in the Plume article above, I am so rapt at his discussion of common sense, which he describes as “a knowing that goes so deep that it is embodied in our senses and has no limits to its commonness. Everything is included.”
Christie:
I can’t stop thinking about this story of two sisters trying to reconcile their memories of the same events. They ended up creating a dance performance to explore their memories.
Have you ever met someone who immediately felt like a kindred spirit? That’s how I felt upon meeting Shereen Marisol Meraji at the first convening of the Greater Good Science Center’s intellectual humility grantees. She shared a story about her father that helped me find a way to express what I was feeling about my own father. I finally wrote about it at Templeton Ideas.
A Different Holding Pattern
If I am to hold the world in my heart,
then let me hold it the way leaves hold sunshine,
trapping the energy not for the sake of holding it,
but to transform it into nourishment.
Though the process isn’t simple, it’s common.
All around the globe, in every season,
leaves hold and synthesize
whatever the day gives them.
On a day when the energy of the world
seems too much to hold,
let me bid my heart turn
like a leaf to the sun
and make sugar.
The way Rilke turned grief into sonnets.
The way Sibelius turned war into song.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (from All the Honey, Samara Press, 2023)
A Note About Paid Subscriptions:
First, we want to thank ALL our subscribers! We are so grateful you join us in this conversation about what it is to engage with yourself, the world and others in a creative way. And a BIG thank you to our paid subscribers. You make this podcast possible. Starting this month, only our paid subscribers will receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support.
This week, how data of your progress can inspire your creative practice, the importance of unproductive days, and running into giant rodents and anacondas in the name of science. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you can go now to our website, EmergingForm.substack.com, or by clicking the button below. Thank you!
Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
How have you been taken advantage of as a writer/artist because you are willing to do what you love for less (or no) pay?
What is “a calling?”
Thanks for reading Emerging Form! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.
Emerging Form is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.