To say that Sy Montgomery gets into her work would be an understatement.
During research for her numerous books, the author of Alliance’s 2026 One Book One Community selection has traveled to the ends of the Earth and put herself in situations only a few humans have experienced.
Her task on Thursday, March 26 — a trip to the Carnation City to discuss her work, especially The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness — will be a little more normal for Montgomery, who lives in New Hampshire with her husband, the writer Howard Mansfield, and their border collie Thurber.
Montgomery will appear at 7 p.m. inside Brush Recital Hall at the Giese Center on the campus of the University of Mount Union for the annual One Book One Community author visit. Following her address to the audience, she will greet members of the community and sign books, with several of her titles available for purchase during the event.
The lecture is free and no registration is required for the program, which is sponsored by Friends of Rodman Library, Greater Alliance Foundation, and University of Mount Union.
“What a great honor and delight it is to have the whole town reading and thinking about my work, and meeting the individual animals I have loved through my words,” said Montgomery. “I can’t wait to meet you all.”
During her visit, Montgomery is sure to recall some of the many adventures she has had while becoming “one of the finest chroniclers of the natural world,” as described by The New York Times.
While conducting research for her work, Montgomery has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Zaire and bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica, worked in a pit crawling with 18,000 snakes in Manitoba and handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana.
She has been deftly undressed by an orangutan in Borneo, hunted by a tiger in India, and swum with piranhas, electric eels and dolphins in the Amazon. She has searched the Altai Mountains of Mongolia’s Gobi for snow leopards, hiked into the trackless cloud forest of Papua New Guinea to radio-collar tree kangaroos.
For her recent bestseller Of Time and Turtles, she befriended a 42-pound wild snapping turtle named Fire Chief, who shows his extraordinary trust by allowing her to feed him by hand.
For the The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness, Montgomery learned to scuba dive in order to commune with octopuses, a skill that also helped in her work researching sharks and giant oceanic manta rays.
It has all paid off as her 38 books for both adults and children have garnered many honors, including The Soul of an Octopus, which was a 2015 Finalist for the National Book Awards.
Some of the highlights of her dozens of other honors, include:
— The 2009 New England Independent Booksellers Association Nonfiction Award.
— The 2010 Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award.
— The Henry Bergh Award for Nonfiction given by the ASPCA for Humane Education.
The Good Good Pig, her memoir of life with her pig, Christopher Hogwood, is an international bestseller.
Her work with the man-eating tigers, the subject of her book Spell of The Tiger, was made into in a National Geographic television documentary she scripted and narrated. Also for National Geographic TV, she developed and scripted Mother Bear Man, about her friend, Ben Kilham, who raises and releases orphaned bear cubs, which won a Chris Award.
Sy writes for adults and children, for print and broadcast, in America and overseas in an effort to reach as wide an audience as possible at what she considers a critical turning point in human history.
“We are on the cusp of either destroying this sweet, green Earth or revolutionizing the way we understand the rest of animate creation,” she says. “It’s an important time to be writing about the connections we share with our fellow creatures. It’s a great time to be alive.”
Ahead of her visit, Montgomery answered some questions via email. Here’s what she had to say:
Q: All of your books are about animals and nature. How did you develop an interest in animals and did you always know that you wanted to write about them?
A: I was born in Germany, and before I was 2 years old, my parents took me to the zoo. As toddlers often do, I broke free of my parents ... and when they found me, I am told, I was in the hippo pen among the hippos! I have always felt very at home with animals, and even at a very young age, I would stay still and watch just about any animal -- a dog, a bee, a sparrow -- for hours at a time. I think most children are naturally attracted to animals. After all, until quite recently, we humans were hunter-gatherers, and our lives depended on observing the animal lives around us.
At first, growing up, I thought I would be a veterinarian. But then I began to read. My father helped me read the stories about animals in The New York Times. This was in the 1960s, and what were most of the animal stories in the newspaper? They were about how animals from eagles to elephants to whales were going extinct because of human pollution, overhunting, and overpopulating human hordes destroying animals’ rightful homes with our homes, roads, stores, and factories. I realized most people did not know this, and figured if they did, they would want to save the animals. And I figured I might help more animals by spreading the word about how marvelous these animals are -- and how we can save them -- than I could even as a veterinarian healing individual animals who were hurt or sick.
Q: How do you choose your subjects?
A: Sometimes the idea for the next book appears to me while researching a previous one. While researching a book on man-eating tigers, I saw Gangetic dolphins in the rivers of India and got the idea to write about the pink river dolphins of the Amazon. While giving a talk about my pink Amazon River dolphins at a zoo, I met a woman researching tree kangaroos in Papua, New Guinea, and later visited her study site, and with photographer Nic Bishop, created a book about her work. In other cases, I’ll have a book in mind for many years, and wait till the right time to do it. This was the case with my first book, an homage to my heroines, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, Walking with the Great Apes. This was also the case with The Soul of an Octopus.
Q: You have written so many books. Where does The Soul of an Octopus fit in as far as your favorites?
A: Very near the top! It was a joy writing and researching this, and unlike so many of my other books researched in remote jungles or faraway deserts or cloud forests, many of the dear friends I made while living the stories in that book are right here in New England where I still get to see them often. And I go back to New England Aquarium to visit the octopuses there regularly! The same is true of my turtle books. In fact, one of the turtles who stars in that book lives up the street from me!
Q: Can you talk about your research/writing process?
A: I take copious notes while living these stories. That sometimes means using an underwater dive slate, or trying to scribble in a notepad while hiking on rocky scree at altitude. At night, I always write in a journal and try to not just record what happened, but why it was important, creating a short essay of sorts. Often many of my books’ pages come right out of my journals, because they were written onsite while the memories were fresh.
Q: What kind of books do you like to read? Do you have any favorite books or authors?
A: Books about animals! But my favorite author of all doesn’t write about animals. He writes about historic preservation, about New England history, and why we choose to remember some stories while forgetting others. I met him in college. In fact, he hired me on to the college daily newspaper. His name is Howard Mansfield. I married him.
Q: If you weren't a writer, what do you think you would be doing?
A: I would be working with animals in some other way. Maybe as a veterinarian or wildlife rehabilitator.
Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a writer?
A: If I can do it, you can do it! And yes, you need talent and drive -- but for me, equally important has been my ability to live off the scent of an oily rag! Not needing a lot of money, not wanting a whole bunch of stuff, not needing what most people consider a secure living have me and my husband -- also a full-time freelance writer -- the time and creative space to write what we care most about 100 percent of the time.
Q: What can people expect when they come to see you in Alliance?
A: Lots of photos of strange, beautiful and powerful animals, and many stories of adventure around the world with them.