Another Morning in Paradise

February 14th, 2025 Writers in the Woods

Nature Immersion Inspires Ted Levin

Photo courtesy of Ted Levin

Ted Levin is a zoologist, photographer, and award-winning author. His essays have appeared in publications including Audubon, The New York Times, Sierra, and Sports Illustrated. He is the author of numerous books, including Liquid Land: A Journey through the Florida Everglades (University of Georgia Press, 2004), America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake (University of Chicago Press, 2016), and his forthcoming book The Promise of Sunrise: Finding Solace in a Broken World (Green Writers Press, March 2025). From his home in Vermont, Ted roots for the Yankees.

Why do you write?

I love to express myself.

What are you writing these days? What do you hope to write in the future?

The Promise of Sunrise: Finding Solace in a Broken World will be published in the spring of 2025. After that, who knows...perhaps the story of the San Pedro River, the only undammed desert river left in the United States.

If your adolescent self could comment on the fact that you’re a zoologist, author, and photographer, what would he say?

Once he realized I was too old to patrol the center field in Yankee Stadium, he wouldn’t be surprised. Baseball and nature are the unbroken themes throughout my life. As an infant, I was a budding naturalist, sitting in a stroller pushed through the American Museum of Natural History, where my Nana and mother took me on regular outings. Later, by the age of 4, I was a regular on the outer beaches of Long Island. Eventually, I could ride my bike to Jones Beach State Park. By age 8, I spent eight weeks each summer at a sleep-away camp in central New Hampshire.

What is your writing process?

My writing process depends on the project: I'm a morning writer and afternoon editor. Everything begins with an outing; most recently, these are sunrise excursions. When I worked on my Everglades book, I did untold hours of library work, phone interviews, and in-person interviews. But the most exciting aspect was traveling through the Everglades, working with biologists and hydrologists, or hanging out alone, watching. I spent eleven years commuting to Florida. I approached timber rattlesnakes the same way: total immersion and on my own.

What’s your favorite treatment for writer’s block?

Running.

How did you end up in Vermont?

I came here for graduate school and have now lived here for 50 years. I was married here, raised my boys here, and my wife died here.

What’s your favorite forest? Why?

Old-growth Sierra Nevada. I spent a year living in Yosemite.

What’s the best little-known nature book(s) you’ve read?

The Peregrine, by J. A. Baker. A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America, by Donald Culross Peattie. Snakes and Snake Hunting and Snakes: The Keeper and the Kept, both by Carl Kauffeld.

What’s the best job you’ve ever had? The worst?

My two best jobs were as a teaching zoologist at the Bronx Zoo and as an ocean lifeguard. The two worst were installing aluminum siding and roofing.

Who inspires you?

John Hay, Aldo Leopold, Mary Oliver, and my children and grandchildren.

In your opinion, what’s the most fascinating species in the northern forest?

Every species is fascinating in its own remarkable way. For instance, the twist of a luna moth’s tail breaks up the bounce-back echolocation of big brown bats, which are predators of the moth.