Tune in 12/21/20 at 9:30am pst when I share an insightful and very timely conversation with Katherine May, author several books in the UK. Katherine shares details of her timely, new book Wintering - The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

“Wintering is every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself. Katherine May thoughtfully examines the emotional, spiritual, and geographical reality of the cold times, the dark days, and those periods of our lives when things are neither soft nor easy. This is truly a beautiful book.”

—#1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert



An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down.

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Katherine May is a gorgeous prose writer with several books out in the UK, and an astute observer of the natural world. In WINTERING, May addresses those times of life when unforeseen circumstances derail you (think: an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a job loss, or a global pandemic NBD). She calls these periods of dislocation wintering. What if, May asks herself, instead of feeling so much shame around “failing” during these times, instead of hustling so hard to keep up appearances, we gave ourselves permission to fall through the cracks and rest? Imagine it: a deep, full season of rest and retreat.

Drawing lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, Katherine weaves the story of her own personal wintering with extraordinary science, cultural history, philosophy, and fable. You’ll meet hibernating dormice, learn about human sleep patterns before electric light existed, and encounter pagan rituals to mark time that still get practiced today.


Unclassifiable, original, and full of unexpected pleasures at every turn, WINTERING could not be coming at a more perfect moment. It is a luminous, vulnerable, and dryly funny look at a season of life that, right now, we all have in common. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katherine May is a writer of both fiction and nonfiction. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including The Times (London), Good Housekeeping, and Cosmopolitan. She lives by the sea in Whitstable, England and is an avid lover of the outdoors.