Author and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer will visit campus on Wednesday, Sept. 24, for three different events related to her book, the 2025 Oswego Reading Initiative (ORI) selection, "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants."

As a botanist, Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are the oldest teachers. 

The book “Braiding Sweetgrass” brings these two lenses of knowledge together in a journey fellow bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert describes as “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise.” 

Recognized on Time magazine's 2025 list of Most Influential People, Kimmerer's headline appearance will be a presentation and Q&A on the book at 7 p.m. Sept. 24 in the Hewitt Hall ballroom. This and other events that day are free and open to the community. A book-signing opportunity will follow.

Kimmerer also will appear at the university’s Rice Creek Field Station at 1 p.m. for an interactive Q&A hosted by Rice Creek Associates. Due to limited seating, attending requires advance registration via this link while space is available.

She will discuss home, ecology and the gift economy as part of the university’s Living Writers Series at 3 p.m. in the Marano Campus Center auditorium, room 132.

Kimmerer is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, as well as the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

Kimmerer's work has been featured on NPR's "On Being" and she has addressed the United Nations. “Braiding Sweetgrass” was a bestseller on lists from The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, and part of the “Best Essay Collection of the Decade” by Literary Hub. In In 2022, she was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Her other books include “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World,” “Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses” and the 2025 children’s book “Bud Finds Her Gift.”

The Oswego Reading Initiative is an annual project since 2002 asking the campus community to read one book over the summer. To accompany the selection, a series of programs, including cultural events and talks, helps facilitate discussion and involvement around the title.

For the evening event, persons with disabilities needing accommodations to attend should contact Erin Timbello at 315-312-2232 at least one week in advance.

For more information on Kimmerer, visit her author website.