WALKS
As a writer and professor of environmental humanities, I work at the intersection of art, landscape, and history. For me, walking is more than exercise—it is a way of thinking. It slows the tempo of attention, sharpens perception, and opens space for reflection. Details come forward: the veining of a leaf, the arc of a bird in flight, the ornament of a carved façade, the scent of cut grass, the choreography of daily life. To walk means to be in conversation with place; it links past, present, and future. In this sense, walking is both method and practice—a modest but yet insistent act of appearing in public, one that invites a sustained, curious engagement with the world.
Fieldnote Fridays
Every Friday, I send a quiet dispatch—a picture and a short reflection—part diary, part field note. These are small stories from the edge of the week: They come from a walk, or from a thought that won’t let go. Over time, three threads have grown: What to Read, a series on books about walking, poems on walking, and A Walk With, where I invite creatives to share what walking means for their practice. As a writer, artist, and environmental humanities professor, I spend a lot of time thinking about how we move through the world—what we notice, what we hold onto, and how we make meaning from place and memory. Fieldnote Fridays is a space for slowness, for paying attention, for the joy of small things. It is, most of all, a celebration of walking.
street in Tivoli, NY; Hudson River, Clermont State Park; trail at Greig Farm, Red Hook, NY; January in Tivoli, NY; view of the Hudson from Bannerman Castle; October in Red Hook, NY; the Swamp Haus near Milan, NY; Winter light, Poets' Walk; the Catskills in September; ice storm in January 2022, Clermont State Park; dock near Saugerties Lighthouse; view of the Hudson from Rokeby
For Walk Her Way, we curated ten walks through New York City, each of them along women's history. These walks, featuring beautiful maps by illustrator Aja O'Han, guide you through neighborhoods such as Brooklyn, Chinatown, Harlem, and Greenwich Village. Each route highlights significant sites connected to the contributions and stories of remarkable women, offering a unique way to explore the city's rich cultural tapestry.
Walk Her Way New York City. A Walking Guide To Women's History, Hardie Grant, 2025
Walk Her Way is a collection of self-guided walks. You don’t need your phone, as directions are given for each stop and all walks are accompanied by a map.
All walks have between 10 and 15 stops and take between 3 hours and half a day, depending on how much time you spend at each stop.
Riverside Park, Upper West Side; Audrey Munson, Manhattan Bridge; Strecker Memorial Laboratory on Roosevelt Island; plaque on Hannah Arendt’s home on Riverside Drive; a door on W 137th St in Harlem; Pell Street in Chinatown; Kaitlyn and me in Washington Square Park; Marianne Moore’s home in Greenwich Village; a path in Central Park with a view of Central Park South
2025 Ascienzo Naturalist-in-Residency
I am honored to be named the 2025 Ascienzo Naturalist-in-Residence at the Red Hook Public Library in New York. Over the past six years, I have had the privilege of calling the Hudson Valley my home. Its landscapes—the river, forests, and mountains—have become deeply meaningful to me, shaping both my work and daily life. This region has a way of awakening the senses and inspiring creativity, and I look forward to sharing that experience with you. Over the course of six nature walks, we will explore the beauty of spring through art and poetry. Walking is one of the simplest yet most profound ways to engage with the world around us, and together, we will use this practice to slow down, observe, and reflect on the season’s renewal. No prior experience in art-making or writing is required—just curiosity and a willingness to explore.
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
how to take a walk
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John Ashbery
Just Walking Around
What names do I have for you?
Certainly there is no name for you
In the sense that the stars have names
That somehow fit them. Just walking around,
An object of curiosity to some,
But you are too preoccupied
By the secret smudge in the back of your soul
To say much, and wander around,
Smiling to yourself and others.
It gets kind of lonely
But at the same time off-putting,
Counterproductive, as you realize once again
That the longest way is the most efficient way,
The one that looped among islands, and
You always seemed to be traveling in a circle.
And now that the end is near
The segments of the trip swing open like an orange.
There is light in there, and mystery and food.
Come see it. Come not for me but it.
But if I am still there, grant that we may see each other.
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Søren Kierkegaard,
I have walked myself into my best thoughts
portrait photos: AnneRaft Photography