Award-winning author of CONVERSATIONS WITH BIRDS and THE LIGHT BETWEEN APPLE TREES. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Orion, and Sierra. An internationally acclaimed naturalist and filmmaker, she has taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Southern California. She serves on the Advisory Council of the Leopold Writing Program and teaches at the University of New Mexico. Her new book is THE GRASSLAND QUEEN (Princeton University Press; Nov 2026)
“The Grassland Queen is a gorgeous love poem, a profound meditation, an odyssey as sweeping as the American Plains. I now love curlews with a passion that takes me aback and feel a new urgency to save their shimmering grassland homes. You will, too.”
—Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus
“What a joy it is to explore America’s prairies with Priyanka Kumar. The Grassland Queen is a beautiful hybrid: part field guide, part love song, and part call to action. Kumar’s devotion to the long-billed curlew and its habitats sings from every page of this fascinating journey.”
—Emily Nemens, author of Clutch
“I just love this book! It’s a great story, well told. I grew up with curlews — their voices haunt beautiful, lonely landscapes. And, as this book recounts, grasslands are landscapes on which human actions increasingly impinge.”
—Dr. Stuart L. Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University, International Cosmos Prize winner, and President of Saving Nature
“This is nature writing at its best, robust biology enriched with history and personal experience. It is a must-read for anyone who cares about wildness, birds, environmental history, or our magnificent grasslands.”
—Joan Strassmann, Washington University in St. Louis and author of Slow Birding
“New Mexico has a habit of bringing out stellar writing on the natural world—Mary Austin, Aldo Leopold, Sharman Apt Russell, and now Priyanka Kumar with this delicious book on an elusive bird. Traveling across her home state and far beyond, Kumar parts the veil between humans and nature, stepping through graciously and smartly. What an intimate pleasure to be by her side.”
—Craig Childs, author of The Wild Dark
“ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING AT ITS BEST” Joan Strassmann
“LUMINOUS WITH WONDER” David George Haskell
“WONDERFULLY WILD” Michelle Nijhuis
“PRIYANKA KUMAR IS DOING FOR TREES WHAT RACHEL CARSON HAS DONE FOR SEA CREATURES” James Ragan
“A DEEPLY MEDITATIVE BOOK IN THE VEIN OF ROBIN WALL KIMMERER’S BRAIDING SWEETGRASS” Sy Montgomery
“Can a book about apple trees change the world? Kumar’s visionary book transformed the way I look at biodiversity and the wild, and I feel certain it will do the same for you.” — Marc Bekoff, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
Ecological awareness and activism often begin with a personal story or connection to nature, and Kumar has zeroed in on an iconic fruit that is part of American lore. She knows that rediscovering our relationship with nature, however imperfect, is a fundamental step toward stewardship. The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit… illuminate(s) how even a single fruit can evoke deep connections and serve as a launching point for environmental action. — Matthew Clark, AMERICAN SCIENTIST
“A captivating cultural history of the heirloom apple, The Light Between Apple Trees delivers an urgent message about maintaining biodiversity during a time of ecological tumult.” — FOREWORD REVIEWS (starred review)
“A tour de force. This book is a joy and a profoundly serious work.” — Robert Scheer, SCHEER INTELLIGENCE
“A pivotal book from one of the country’s foremost naturalists.” — Sabrina Jacobs, A RUDE AWAKENING on KPFA
“(F)or Ms. Kumar to go into exquisite detail on the evolutionary history of apples . . . brought my inner, oft-neglected, scientist great delight. . . . But the author is at her most poetic when her love of how fruit brings people together comes to the fore. If ever there existed a summary of the hope for a better, more communal future, it is here within these pages.” – Brian Watson, Hippocampus Magazine
“Her book explores the history of the fruit’s first presence several centuries ago as it has traveled across oceans and continents. The saga of her quest is revealed on the pages of The Light Between Apple Trees. [It] takes readers on a journey from past to present, locating cultivated orchards and feral apples, many tastier than the dozen choices offered in our supermarkets.” — Jane Manaster, SEATTLE BOOK REVIEW (starred review)
“For gardeners and orchardists, Kumar’s work is a treasure. . . .The Light Between Apple Trees transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. An apple is no longer just fruit; it is a story of human cultivation, ecological loss, and hope for the future.” — LOCAL GARDENER
“A delicious book to savor from an author whose impeccable research and field work in orchards combine with visceral memories from her native Himalayan foothills. A journey around the world through apples, this book also essentially defines what’s really happening with climate change. Climate change through the core of the apple!” — Carly Newfeld, THE LAST WORD on KSFR
“Enchanted by apples, Priyanka Kumar takes the reader along on a wide-ranging exploration of the fruit. The Light Between Apple Trees is a unique book about family, the environment, cultivation, and the need for the preservation of wild places. Priyanka Kumar is one of the most interesting and enjoyable voices in contemporary natural history writing.” — Mark Lynch, INQUIRY on WICN
“The transatlantic travels of the apple are also fascinating, extending from New Mexico to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, who was a devoted grower and admirer of apples in his 8-acre “fruitery”. The essayist and broadcaster Priyanka Kumar has just explored them in her new book, The Light Between Apple Trees.” — Robin Lane Fox, FINANCIAL TIMES
“Nature writer Kumar (Conversations with Birds) explores the history and diversity of apples in this thorough mix of memoir and ecology . . . readers will be inspired to reconnect with nature.” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY’S Reading Gem/ FOOD TANK’S Fall Reading Recommendation/ NEW BOOKS NETWORK’S Book of the Day/ FOREWORD REVIEWS’ Book of the Day/ 2026 Santa Fe International Literary Festival/ 2026 Tucson Festival of Books
Newsletter: CONVERSATIONS with NATURE