For award-winning science writer Margie Patlak, exploring the unique nature of the Maine coast opens a door to deeper ties and insights. Watching a striped monarch caterpillar transform into a chartreuse pendant dabbed with gold, she realizes the limits of life and what is passed between generations. Tides show how fleeting time is, and clouds and weather reveal greater forces that take away all illusions of control. She also explores the continental collisions that thrust up and fractured Maine’s mountains; digs into the latest scientific thinking on how animals navigate; and exults in the dizzy dance of plankton under the microscope. Even moose, fox, and fishers reveal more than meets the eye. These facets of the natural world speak a hidden language Patlak translates with her scientific knowledge and reflection. In this talk, Patlak will read from her book, discuss her writing process, and answer questions.

Margie Patlak is an award-winning science writer and memoirist who has written hundreds of articles about the environment, neuroscience, biomedical research, and technology for popular publications such as Discover magazine, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and many others; and her personal essays have appeared in a number of literary journals and newspapers. She has degrees in Botany and Environmental Studies and divides her time between Philadelphia and Corea, Maine.

For a link to the Zoom event, please email elewis@rocklandmaine.gov.