Author Richard Powers sees nature in new light with new book
Novelist Richard Powers’ latest book, “The Overstory,” entwines the tales of human characters with those of the trees on which society depends — and has always depended — for timber, for food, for shade, for beauty. The National Book Award and MacArthur “genius grant” winner’s book explores the importance of individual trees in the everyday and spiritual lives of a group of ordinary people, as well as the broader impact of logging practices, particularly those aimed at old-growth forests. Powers will be visiting Harvard later this month, appearing March 25 at the Arnold Arboretum with Arboretum Director William Friedman and Robin Wall Kimmerer, a professor in the department of environmental and forest biology at the State University of New York at Syracuse. The next day, he’ll appear with Kimmerer and Harvard Divinity School writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams at an event hosted by Harvard’s Mahindra Humanities Center. Powers, who was born in Illinois and...