Naila Moreira teaches science writing at Smith College. Her journalism, nature writing, fiction, and poetry have appeared in The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, Scientific American, numerous literary journals, and elsewhere. Her forthcoming middle grade novel The Monarchs of Winghaven (Walker Books US, May 2024) is available for preorder.
Why do you write?
Oof. Why do you breathe? Admittedly, writing is harder than breathing, but as Sylvia Plath once wrote, “Writing is my health.” Also, I think of writing as living three times. You live the event; you live the event twice over in that moment because you’re inhabiting how you’ll write it later; and you live it a third time when you recreate your memories on the page. It’s the best way I know to encapsulate and understand experience.
What inspired you to write The Monarchs of Winghaven?
The nature adventures of my tween years are the source of most of the natural history events in The Monarchs of Winghaven, in a landscape much like the title setting. I “met” my protagonist, Sammie, back then, too. I could see her in my head, a kind of doppelganger of myself even though her personality is very different than mine; and since I’d always loved writing as well as nature, I scrawled a few notes about her. She hung around in my imagination and on that slip of paper for years until I finally decided to write her story.
When writing, what are your go-to sources of natural history information?
I look up a lot of material online, of course. But well-loved on my shelf with dog-eared pages are The Sibley Guide to Birds, Peterson field guides, Stokes animal and bird behavior guides, and Clare Walker Leslie’s nature journaling books. I also love very local guides like The Natural History of Western Massachusetts by Stan Freeman and Mike Nasuti. For trees, Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast by Michael Wojtech is an amazing resource.
A lot of stuff also comes out of my head. I learned a lot growing up from seasoned naturalists at the Audubon Society and other nature organizations, and I still attend workshops and field trips when I can. I’ve studied nature in a variety of settings all my life with wise and knowledgeable mentors whom I strive to honor in my writing.
What is your writing process?
I’m a peripatetic writer. I can’t write if I’m not roaming around. I like writing in company in writing groups like those at my local library. I love cafés and even bars, where I’m that oddball all alone with a notebook. I write outdoors a lot – I like to walk out to a local area of farm fields flanking the Connecticut River, just below the line of the Holyoke Range, then park myself by the bank or on the loading dock of an old red barn I love, and scrawl away.
Often, I start writing longhand in a notebook, then transfer my words to my computer later. Writing by hand slows me down enough to think harder. Also, it’s more difficult to edit and to read back, so I stay present on the words I’m producing in the moment and in the imaginative world I’m inhabiting as I write.
What advice do you have for new writers?
Writing is a balance between inner resistance and desire to write. You’ve got to want to write hard enough to overcome your own resistance. There’s great advice out there online and in books for how to do that. If you know what you want to write (or even if you don’t), the only solution, as the great children’s writer Jane Yolen says, is “butt in chair” – research and learn ways to overcome your psychological resistance, sit down, and apply yourself to the page.
What’s your favorite treatment (curative or otherwise) for writer’s block?
I don’t get writer’s block. I do intimately know resistance to writing – the fear of writing, the feeling that I can’t do my ideas justice, the procrastination, the flitting from one project to another. But I never feel “blocked” in terms of not knowing what to write. The stuff is always there, waiting. I have a backlog of projects a mile long.
Do you have another book in you? If so, which topic would you most like to write about?
I’ve got all kinds of books simmering. My debut novel for kids focuses on terrestrial habitats – meadow, forest, wild edges of suburban landscapes. However, I spent years of my life by the sea. I used to be a docent and beach naturalist for the Seattle Aquarium, and several years back I did a writing residency at the Shoals Marine Lab on an island in the Gulf of Maine. All three of the next books on my desk or in my imagination – the YA novel on which I’m in progress; a kids’ follow-up to The Monarchs of Winghaven; and an adult novel – are set by and on the ocean.
What’s your favorite forest activity?
I’m a birdwatcher, so you might think I’d say birding. However, I often prefer to birdwatch in more open environments, where the birds aren’t exasperatingly obscured by layer on layer of tree canopy.
I think my favorite thing to do in forests is to take samples. I’ve done a lot of research in forestlands, mostly in my former life as a geoscientist – sitting on an upturned 5-gallon bucket taking well-water samples; filling sample jars from rivers; digging up soil horizons with an auger. One of my dearest memories is working as an environmental consultant in the deep temperate rainforest of Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. Our fish survey biologist needed an extra field hand, so I spent beautiful days clambering over moss-covered fallen trees and wading down narrow stream beds, capturing salmon and trout fry from beneath dripping overhung banks, measuring and recording them, and releasing them to their wild, strange lives.
What’s your most memorable moment in the forest?
One of my most memorable moments in the forest inspired a scene in The Monarchs of Winghaven. The first time I ventured alone into a deep pine woodland as a young teen, I spotted my first pileated woodpecker. The woods were dim and spooky, and I wasn’t supposed to be in a place of such solitude on my own. But when a pileated woodpecker landed on a dead snag and split the air with its call, the fear and sense of trespass were worth it.
What’s your spirit animal?
I love seagulls. They’re tough, they’re survivors. They’re not always everybody’s favorite. They’ll take what they can get. But when they’re in the air, they transform. They exude such beauty, strength, and purity. I like to think we all have that clarity within us when we’re in the right place.
Are you reading anything great right now?
I’ve been enjoying Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation. It flings together such a memorable cast of characters: a woman who fled her conservative upbringing as a teen to pursue love and freedom; her aging parents, farmers who are far more innovative than she gave them credit for; and a ragtag group of anti-GMO hippie activists who get tangled up in their lives. The book explores the complexities of new technologies, capitalism, environmentalism, agriculture, and the real human beings at the butt end of conflicting ideologies. It’s a smart, often funny, and poignant read.