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Diane Ackerman

Bio: 
Diane Ackerman is the author of several works of nonfiction including, most recently, An Alchemy of Mind, a poetics of the brain based on the latest neuroscience; Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden; Deep Play, which considers play, creativity, and our need for transcendence; A Slender Thread, about her work as a crisis line counselor; The Rarest of the Rare and The Moon by Whale Light, in which she explores the plight and fascination of endangered animals; A Natural History of Love; On Extended Wings, her memoir of flying; and the bestseller A Natural History of the Senses. Her poetry has been published in leading literary journals and various anthologies. She also writes nature books for children: Animal Sense; Monk Seal Hideaway; and Bats: Shadows in the Night. She is co-editor of a Norton anthology, The Book of Love. Ms. Ackerman has received many prizes and awards and she also has the rare distinction of having a molecule named after her --dianeackerone.

The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us

Diane Ackerman
In Conversation With Primatologist Amy Parish
Monday, September 15, 2014
01:05:36
ALOUD
Listen:
Episode Summary

From one of our finest literary interpreters of science and nature comes an optimistic manifesto on the earth-shaking changes now affecting every part of our lives, and those of our fellow creatures. Through her compelling and meditative prose, Ackerman reminds us how the human and natural worlds coexist, coadapt and interactively thrive.

Participant(s) Bio

Diane Ackerman, poet, essayist, and naturalist, has been the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction in addition to many other awards for her work, which includes the best-selling The Zookeeper’s Wife and A Natural History of the Senses. Her memoir One Hundred Words for Love was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has hosted the PBS series Mystery of the Senses and has the rare distinction of having a molecule named after her—dianeackerone— a pheromone in crocodilians.

Dr. Amy Parish is a biological anthropologist, primatologist, and Darwinian feminist, who has conducted ground-breaking research on patterns of female dominance and matriarchal social structure in one of our closest living relatives, the bonobo. Formerly a professor at the University of Southern California, she is now affiliated with faculty at Georgetown University and a research associate at University College London. Parish is currently working on a book about love, marriage, and the experience of being a wife.

The Zookeeper's Wife

In conversation with Louise Steinman, Curator, ALOUD
Monday, October 20, 2008
1:07:42
ALOUD
Listen:
Episode Summary
The true story of the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, who, with extraordinary courage, compassion, and calm under pressure, managed to save hundreds of people from Nazi hands.
Participant(s) Bio
Diane Ackerman is the author of several works of nonfiction including, most recently, An Alchemy of Mind, a poetics of the brain based on the latest neuroscience; Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden; Deep Play, which considers play, creativity, and our need for transcendence; A Slender Thread, about her work as a crisis line counselor; The Rarest of the Rare and The Moon by Whale Light, in which she explores the plight and fascination of endangered animals; A Natural History of Love; On Extended Wings, her memoir of flying; and the bestseller A Natural History of the Senses. Her poetry has been published in leading literary journals and various anthologies. She also writes nature books for children: Animal Sense; Monk Seal Hideaway; and Bats: Shadows in the Night. She is co-editor of a Norton anthology, The Book of Love. Ms. Ackerman has received many prizes and awards and she also has the rare distinction of having a molecule named after her --dianeackerone.

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