Being in a community, among parents and caregivers watching children play in mud and climb trees-I was so isolated and in despair during that very early postpartum period, it was actually a form of survival for me. It was about being outdoors but it was also about being with others.

Kate Zambreno: I think so much of the outside forest school-which met on Tuesday mornings-was about feeling a sense of community, amidst the isolation of our bubbles-and also the bubble of the postpartum period. I spoke with the author about the book’s themes after getting back home to New York City from my camping trip.Įmily Raboteau: Could you talk about how you found solace in nature during that dark and isolating time of protracted crisis? And about the Forest School in Prospect Park in particular-its philosophy and what it did for your family to participate in that community during the pandemic. The tension between crisis and joy resonated with me on a deep level as a parent, a writer, and a reader, as did the attention to the fine art of caretaking. history.) It seemed a fitting situation to dive into Zambreno’s ninth book, which is about parenting a toddler and an infant in central Brooklyn during the pandemic. (Now we know it was the worst wildfire related pollution event in recorded U.S. I had to weigh the safety risks of taking him outdoors in that miasma against my maternal desire to make magic for him, and to find solace in nature. We went out in kayaks on Breakneck Pond when the air quality index dropped from hazardous to moderate. My kid said the smoke was making the world wavy. We wore masks heldover from the pandemic to keep the particulate matter out of our lungs because the air was so toxic. I STARTED READING Kate Zambreno ’s incandescent new book The Light Room a month before its publication date during a camping trip with my ten year old at Bear Mountain State Park under a sky gone hazy and orange from the smoke of Canadian wildfires.

Berserk - tell me why