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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Each chapter of this absorbing memoir explores a particular species of tree, layering description, anecdote, and natural history to tell the story of a scrap of forest in the Sunshine Coast hinterland - how the author came to be there and the ways it has shaped her life.
'In many ways, it's the story of a tree-change, of escaping suburban Brisbane for a cottage on ten acres in search of a quiet life. Of establishing a writers' retreat shortly before the Global Financial Crisis hit, and losing just about everything when it did.
'It is also the story of what the author found there: the literature of nature and her own path as a writer. Understory is about connection to place as a white settler descendant, and the search for a language appropriate to describe that experience. '
Notes
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Dedication: For my father, Brice
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also large print.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Inga Simpson : Understory : A Life with Trees
2018
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , February 2018;'In Understory Inga Simpson invites us to be more truly here than we were before.'
-
Out of the Woods
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 June 2017; (p. 16) Also discusses The Songs of Trees: Stories From Nature's Great Connectors By David George Haskell. -
Inga Simpson : Understory
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 3-9 June 2017; 'In 2007 Inga Simpson, not yet a successful novelist, is stuck on a wearying conference call when she first sees the cedar cottage that will change her life. It sits in a misty forest and is up for sale. Simpson and her partner, a writer known here as N, aren’t ready for their tree change, but many things in this memoir happen before the pair is ready; they meet challenges as opportunities, equally inspiring and frightening.' (Introduction)
-
Inga Simpson : Understory
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 3-9 June 2017; 'In 2007 Inga Simpson, not yet a successful novelist, is stuck on a wearying conference call when she first sees the cedar cottage that will change her life. It sits in a misty forest and is up for sale. Simpson and her partner, a writer known here as N, aren’t ready for their tree change, but many things in this memoir happen before the pair is ready; they meet challenges as opportunities, equally inspiring and frightening.' (Introduction) -
Out of the Woods
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 June 2017; (p. 16) Also discusses The Songs of Trees: Stories From Nature's Great Connectors By David George Haskell. -
Inga Simpson : Understory : A Life with Trees
2018
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , February 2018;'In Understory Inga Simpson invites us to be more truly here than we were before.'
Awards
- Sunshine Coast Hinterland, South East Queensland, Queensland,