Mycoverse: Forest Euphoria – The Abounding Queerness of Nature

Organized and hosted by Aaron Tupac Sponsored by Arlington Garden

“Forest Euphoria pulses with vitality, in the wondrous beings we encounter and Kaishian’s vivid storytelling. I’m in awe of her ability to interweave the little-known lives of slugs and fungi with memoir and social movements, so that every page broadens one’s vision. Her expansive view of life provides an antidote to the loneliness of our species.”—Robin Wall Kimmerer, New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass

Dr. Patricia Kaishian is one of Exploring the Mycoverse's favorite authors who expanded our minds by showing us mycology as a queer discipline and challenged how we think about parasitism and pathogens. We can't wait to discuss her new book Forest Euphoria.

Kaishian is involved in numerous inspiring projects, including serving as the Curator of Mycology at the New York State Museum, founding the International Congress of Armenian Mycologists, and being a board member of the Fungal Diversity Survey.

This is the first of two discussions we have for this book, we will continue discussing in November.

✨🌜 A meditation at the start of our discussion will be lead by Vanessa Machuca to ground us. 🌛✨

📝 Before our Discussion, we invite you to read:

• Roughly the first half of the book, around 100 pages, Interspecies Dens through Cemetery Crows, pages 1-114

📖 About the Book

Growing up, Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian felt most at home in the swamps and culverts near her house in the Hudson Valley. A child who frequently felt out of place, too much of one thing or not enough of another, she found acceptance in these settings, among other amphibious beings. In snakes, snails, and, above all, fungi, she saw her own developing identities as a queer, neurodivergent person reflected back at her—and in them, too, she found a personal path to a life of science.

In Forest Euphoria, Kaishian shows us this making of a scientist and introduces readers to the queerness of all the life around us. Fungal species, we learn, commonly encompass more than two biological sexes—and some as many as twenty-three thousand. Some intersex slugs mutually fire calcium carbonate “love darts” at each other during courtship. Glass eels are sexually undetermined until their last year of life, a mystery that scientists once dubbed “the eel question.” Nature, Kaishian shows us, is filled with the unusual, the overlooked, and the marginalized—and they have lessons for us all.

Wide-ranging, richly observant, and full of surprises, Forest Euphoria will open your eyes and change how you look at the world.

🌱🪻🍄🌳🐜🌲🕸️🌸🌿🪾🍄‍🟫🌱🪻🍄🌳🐜🌲🕸️🌸🌿🪾🍄‍🟫🌱🪻🍄🌳🐜🌲🕸️🌸🌿🪾🍄‍🟫

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