Douglas Wood
Presenter: A Writer’s Path: Magic, Meaning and Metaphor

Douglas Wood has been called “Minnesota’s renaissance man.” Author, artist, musician, naturalist and wilderness guide, Doug is the creator of 30 books for children and adults, with two and a half million copies sold.

His first book, Old Turtle, was hailed as an instant classic, a “profound, lapidary work” that fused “simple eloquence with an elemental logic.” Translated widely, it has received many honors and awards, including the American Booksellers Book of the Year and the International Reading Association Book of the Year.

Doug has been invited to read his books at the White House, and recently narrated a choral and symphonic setting of Old Turtle at New York’s famed Lincoln Center. In his books, frequent speaking engagements, and far-flung wilderness expeditions, he continues to explore the relationship between the natural world and the human spirit.

His numerous awards include the Christopher Medal, Barnes and Noble Star of the North and the Storytelling World Award. Doug lives with his wife Kathy in a log cabin in the pines by the Mississippi River, where, he states, “many of our most estimable neighbors are turtles.”

About his presentation, Doug says “Used with purpose and clarity, words are among the most powerful forces in the world. They can also bring magic to our world and meaning to our lives.” Join Doug as he shows how to make a natural scene come to life and transport the reader there (magic); and how to show its implications and make a symbolic connection to the writer’s—and reader’s—life (meaning and metaphor).