Local biologist and photographer, Alison Pouliot, will launch her new book, Underground Lovers, at Radius Art Gallery on March 15.
Alison is known nationally and internationally for her studies of fungi and for her spectacular books of photographs and essays. She is the author of numerous articles about mushrooms and mushrooming. She completed her doctorate at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at ANU in Canberra where she is currently an Honourary Fellow. She shares her time between Daylesford and Bern, Switzerland. Her research and teaching take her to places such as the Kew Gardens in London, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and The Rachel Carson Centre of Environment and Society in Munich.
Her published books combine her love of nature and her exquisite skill as a photographer. In 2018, she published The Allure of Fungi, which explores the relationship between the forest and fungi and the fungus-fearing attitudes of humans. Wild Mushrooming: A Guide for Foragers, co-authored by Royal Botanic Gardens principal researcher, Tom May, was published in 2021. The book includes advice on how to find and collect fungi, provides a guide to distinguishing edible from poisonous fungi and includes a selection of recipes.
Underground Lovers is a celebration of the astonishing beauty and complexity of fungi.It melds science and personal reflection to explore overlooked themes, among them – fungi and fire, fungi and climate change, fungi and aesthetics, fungi in ecosystem restoration, and fungi and indigenous wisdom. The book explores fungi through first-hand stories – from the Australian desert to Iceland’s glaciers to America’s Cascade Mountains. Readers will dwell with fungal allies and aliens, discover how fungi hold forests together, and why humans are deeply entwined with these unruly renegades of the subterrain.
Alison will be in Hepburn Springs to launch her new book at the Radius Art Gallery, 76 Main Rd, on Wednesday March 15 from 6pm to 7:30 pm. The event if free but you should book a ticket at trybooking.
What can we learn from the lives of fungi? Underground Lovers brings us to our knees, magnifier in hand, to find out.
Alison’s books are available online through her website, alisonpouliot.com, They are also usually available a Paradise bookshop in Vincent Street, Daylesford. Underground Lovers is on order and should be in store soon.
You can see a preview of Underground Lovers on Google books.
