Winner of the 2021 New Welsh Writing Awards: Rheidol Prize for Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting
Shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year, Creative Non-fiction
'Vivid, quick and iridescent, Birdsplaining is an absolute kingfisher of a book' – Mike Parker
Roaming across nineteenth-century Palestine and twenty-first century California, Scotland, and Wales, Jasmine Donahaye grapples with difficult questions about our relationship to other species, to one another, and to the past. Birds, and how we look at them, are at the centre of her exploration of the ways that women's experience is shaped and how we come to terms with our own legacies of fear, uncertainty and the risk of getting things wrong. Challenging, self-questioning, humorous and resolutely ethical, the interlinked essays in Birdsplaining upend familiar ways of seeing the natural world.
'Unusual, vivid… remarkably easy-to-read & enjoyable. Doesn’t shy away from taking on difficult subjects… A means for personal reflection.' – BTO News [British Trust for Ornithology]
'An erudite, bold, questing and valid collection of beautifully written essays. Whilst one eye stays focused on the injustices and cruelties of the world, the other gulps in its jewels and preciousness. Moving, stirring, and vital.' – Niall Griffiths
'Superb… by turns moving, funny, illuminating… and… thought-provoking' – Katherine Stansfield
'Upends familiar ways of seeing the natural world ― and in doing so, creates its own ecological niche' – Karen Lloyd, Caught by the River
'A curiosity and passion so unapologetically alive that her words form wings' – Lotte Williams, Nation.Cymru
'Neither human-centred nor its opposite. Although she explores human grief, violence and recovery, Donahaye also has a beautifully conveyed passion for the unromantic aspects of the environment… She bridges the very gap [in nature writing] that she identifies.' – Saskia McCracken, The Welsh Agenda
'Whilst birds might not provide the answer to the meaning of life for Donahaye, they do have a part to play in finding meaning IN life, whether that be through personal symbolism and anecdotal encounters, or in larger questions about power and responsibility.' – Gwales.com
'A fresh way of looking at nature writing, a deeply personal account that embraces its own subjectivity' – Zoe Kramer, Wales Arts Review
'This is a beautiful collection where the nonhuman appears as a close neighbour… [and which] searches for hope and resilience in times of risk.' – Yvonne Reddick, New Welsh Reader
Jasmine Donahaye is author of six books, including the award-winning memoir Losing Israel. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Modern Love column, in the Guardian and on BBC Radio 4. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Swansea University, and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.