The Hopes of Snakes—And Other Tales from the Urban Landscape

In The Hopes of Snakes, Lisa Couturier brings together the best of her essays on urban and suburban nature throughout the Northeast, from Washington, DC, to Boston. Her sharp eye and deep humanity have found what is remarkable in city nature and illuminated it for readers like no one before her.

“Couturier’s essays shine with her candor, her perception, and her affection for the creatures of our world. Whether the subject is a snake or a falcon or a crow named Edgar, these essays will both enlighten and give much reading pleasure.” —Mary Oliver

“Couturier enters the terrain staked out by Annie Dillard in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Terry Tempest Williams in Refuge. In these moving essays, Couturier does not so much domesticate the wilderness as reveal the wildness within the domestic.” —Publishers Weekly

“In her mastery of the essay as an expressive form, and in the power and sincerity of her thinking, Couturier has established herself as the literary equal of such contemporary luminaries as Linda Hogan, Diane Ackerman and Barbara Kingsolver.” —John A. Murray, editor of the American Nature Writing series

Lisa Couturier’s essays have appeared in literary anthologies, including the well-regarded American Nature Writing series and National Geographic’s Heart of a Nation. She has worked as an environmental journalist and a magazine editor. She writes and teaches in the Washington, DC, area, where she lives along the Potomac River.