"This book is structured a little like a garden in which the seeds have been
broadcast in wide spirals. There is an insistence on the relationship between
all of the subjects within it: motherhood, climate collapse, social justice,
botanical history, but also a commitment (at least as I see it) to a kind of
disorder, a refusal to manage (or manhandle) the topics in relation to each
other, but to let them flower naturally, in each others proximity, and inform
each other associatively rather than according to logic or outline--a little
like a swath of prairie, all the plants and animals coexisting in an organic
design. Can you talk a little about how the book found its form? "
Pat Houston interviews Camille T. Dungy about her new book, "Soil: The Story
of a Black Mother's Garden."
