Limber

Recipient of 2021 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers Loft Award for Creative Prose The Rumpus, "What to Read When Nature Calls" Inside Hook, “The 20 Best Nature Books of the 2000s” “Pelster’s essay collection . . . proves nimble and curious, with essays on subjects such as: trees, mortality, decay, and history. Whether Pelster is talking about an old mining town buried alive, a tree that belonged only to itself, or a mother buried with her children in the desert, her prose invites the reader to pause and wonder. Some essays, such as “By Way of the Beginning,” “Temple,” and “Rot,” combine moments both mundane and sublime: the memory of beliefs we wish we’d never had, raking leaves, and caterpillars in the summer. Pelster questions our mortality, how we define ourselves, and faith; and has fun doing so. . . . The book is sure to appeal to those who are interested in nature writing and, with its mystical feel—”chart[ing] the world’s history through its trees”—to fans of creative nonfiction as well.” —Publishers Weekly "This is a collection of wild and imaginative lyric essays devoted to trees and all their wonderment. Each essay is its own unique treasure, masterfully crafted with sentences that woo us and move us and knock us right off the couch. . . . Limber expanded what I thought was possible within the form of the essay, and I am so grateful for it." —"What to Read When Nature Calls," The Rumpus "When confronting nature, some writers focus on wildlife or entire ecosystems. For Angela Pelster, the focal point of her book Limber ended up being trees. And while this book is relatively slim, it does the weightiness of its subject justice." —“The 20 Best Nature Books of the 2000s,” Inside Hook “As the author reveals in these charming essays, nature is imbued with enticing mysteries, and trees can be agents of salvation.” —Kirkus Reviews “Pelster offers up 17 beautiful and varied pieces that reawaken the reader’s sense of trees as both corporeal and symbolic objects. . . . Pelster reveals herself to be a sharp observer with an expansive imagination and an exquisite writer.” —The Cedar Rapids Gazette “[Limber] is one of the quirkiest and most original books about the natural world that I have read in quite some time. . . . Filled with precise, poetical and sparse language, the essays reveal not just the life of trees but how they connect us to the greater world around us.” —Seattle Times “Pelster takes the title of her ruminative essay collection from the book’s second essay, “Burmis,” where she discusses limber pine trees. . . . Her essays, ostensibly often about the natural world, demonstrate a similar quality in the way Pelster maneuvers her discussion of trees and animals to dark places of experience.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer “Like the roots of the trees Angela Pelster writes about--which at the time of their development “were an uncontainable force that drilled and crumbled the rock of the world”--these poetic essays on trees, humans and their interactions with nature are profound and beautiful.” —Shelf Awareness