Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Some books open windows. This one dissolves walls entirely.

Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian invites us into the wild, wet places where she first discovered herself—not despite nature’s strangeness, but because of it. Forest Euphoria is part memoir, part scientific revelation, and entirely transformative. It’s a book that asks: What if everything we thought was “normal” in nature is actually just the beginning of the story?

Here’s what awaits you in these pages:

• Fungi with twenty-three thousand biological sexes
• Intersex slugs wielding calcium carbonate love darts
• Glass eels who remain sexually undetermined until their final year
• A scientist’s journey of self-discovery mirrored in the natural world

Kaishian writes with the precision of a mycologist and the heart of someone who has always understood that the margins are where the most interesting life happens. Her prose is lush, observant, and refreshingly honest—the kind of nature writing that doesn’t just describe the world but fundamentally shifts how you see it.

Robin Wall Kimmerer calls it “an antidote to the loneliness of our species.” Margaret Renkl praises it as “a master class in how to love the world.” We’d add: it’s also a reminder that nature has been queer, wild, and gloriously diverse all along. We’ve just been looking the wrong way.

Perfect for readers who loved Braiding Sweetgrass, curious minds exploring biology and ecology, or anyone who has ever felt like they didn’t quite fit the mold—and found freedom in that realization.

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