What wild is: essays on living

Kathleen Allison Quick
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:46:35 PDT

This collection of nonfiction essays, What Wild Is, employs personal narratives to discuss the condition of humanity in North America. Events in the author's life lead her to introspections ranging from how people have come to separate wild and domestic and why, to how we raise our children and why. Ultimately, these events call into question the role that people - at least in North America - play in this world versus their perception of that role. Money and instant gratification are often the root of the separation that people have created between themselves and the world in which they live. People have grown accustomed to pre-packaged and pre-made everything, and their interactions both with each other and with the rest of the organic world reflect the separation that such ease of living creates. These essays often raise questions that have no black and white answer, no irrefutable right or wrong, but this does not lessen the importance of asking.