A Little Night Magic For You

Hello, All,

Remember how from time to time I like to bring in guest voices from folks who are doing interesting things? Well, today I’ve invited my dear friend Leigh Ann Henion to share a bit about her book, Night Magic, that launches into the world this week.

Leigh Ann writes gorgeous, lush prose about wondrous things (her first book, Phenomenal, spent some time on the NYTimes Bestseller List for travel books!), and her love of the natural world is deeply inspiring. (More about Leigh Ann here.)

From the book’s jacket:

“Night Magic is a glorious celebration of the dark! New York Times bestselling nature writer Leigh Ann Henion makes the case for embracing night as a profoundly beautiful part of the world we inhabit—and she invites us to leave our well-lit homes and step outside. It turns out we don’t have to go far to find marvels: We are surrounded by animals that rise with the moon, gigantic moths, and nocturnal blooms that reveal themselves incrementally as light fades.

In her quest to know night with greater intimacy, Henion travels through forests alight with bioluminescent mushrooms and mountain valleys teeming with migratory salamanders. She ventures into the dark alongside naturalists, biologists, primitive-skills experts, and others who’ve dedicated their lives to cultivating relationships with darkness and the creatures who depend on it.

In this age of increasing artificial light, Night Magic is an invitation to focus on the biodiversity that surrounds us after sunset. We do not need to stargaze into the distant cosmos or dive into the depths of oceans to find awe in the dark—when we reclaim night, dazzling wonders can be found in our own backyards.”

Below, Leigh Ann addresses her readers. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to venture out into the dark, and soak up some wonder!

From Leigh Ann:

Dear Reader,

The idea for this book was delivered by fireflies. After I wrote an article about a synchronous-blinking species for the Washington Post Magazine, many readers reached out to let me know that they’d started turning off their porch lights more often.

They were curious to find out what they’d been missing out on by not inviting darkness into their own yards, and I was amazed that my story had inspired real-world action that led to reduced light pollution. I’ve subsequently spent years in the company of owls, bats, salamanders, and other nocturnal creatures to explore the importance of natural darkness in an age of increasing artificial light.

Before I started researching Night Magic—which is set in my home region of Appalachia—I had no idea that my sense of smell rises at the exact time that night-blooming flowers begin to unfurl in moonlight, or that every time I’ve seen a caterpillar in my life, I’ve almost assuredly been looking at a moth-in-waiting rather than a future butterfly. I had no idea that so much of the natural world I appreciate in daylight is owed to night.

In the process of working on this book, I’ve often been so wowed by discoveries that I’ve had the impulse to immediately reach out to friends because I couldn’t wait to share. As you ramble through these night seasons with me, I hope that, at least once, you’ll come across something that makes you think: What? I’ve got to tell someone about this!

Night Magic is an homage to the creatures who stand to benefit from dark-positive storytelling, which, as explained in these pages, includes pretty much every lifeform on this planet—including humans! It’s impossible to know where Night Magic will go from here. The one thing I know for sure is that releasing this book is not an end; it is a beginning. Thank you for being part of Night Magic’s ongoing story.

Take care,

Leigh Ann