Moving Mountains: Writing Nature through Illness and Disability
Book Review
Moving Mountains is described within the book’s inner cover as being a “first-of-its-kind anthology of nature writing by authors living with chronic illness and physical disability”.
This is predominantly what attracted me to this book, as it stands out within the field of nature writing which is largely saturated with adventure-based stories (that, whilst interesting, focus on conquering landscapes) or therapeutic based stories that focus on the ‘nature cure’ of nature being healing, which isn’t applicable to everyone.
Moving Mountains instead offers a fresh perspective which revolves around both living with and connecting with nature, whilst also providing representation for disabled voices which might ordinarily not be present within nature writing. It makes nature feel more welcoming and in sync with a marginalised group of people, who are often made to feel unwelcome in natural spaces.
My only criticism is that the disability-nature connection varies greatly in strength across the numerous accounts. There are some very powerful accounts (which I was mulling over for some time afterwards), but there are others where the connection between disability and nature feels a bit tenuous.
There were also some moments where it didn’t feel like I was gaining any new knowledge, though I will concede that this could be because I already hold knowledge about the intersection between disability and nature. I am happy to say that these fleeting moments were balanced out with moments of resonance and solidarity.
Overall, it was an interesting and timely read, but I would class it as being an introductory text to the intersection between disability and nature and would sign post it to someone who was new to these areas and would like to find out more.
