Paula Whyman’s new book, BAD NATURALIST: One Woman's Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop, is out from Timber Press/Hachette. It’s a memoir about the author's attempts to restore native meadows on a mountain in the foothills of the Blue Ridge--the obstacles she encountered, her mistakes and successes, and the connection she made with the land, its plants and wildlife. Her first book, the linked story collection YOU MAY SEE A STRANGER, won praise from The New Yorker, a starred review in Publishers Weekly, and was awarded the Towson Prize for Literature.

Whyman's writing has also appeared in The American Scholar, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Ploughshares, VQR, The Washington Post, and on NPR. She is a fellow of MacDowell, Yaddo, VCCA, and The Studios of Key West.

Whyman's work on BAD NATURALIST was supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council and residencies and grants from Oak Spring Garden Foundation.