Scanlan’s first book, Turning Homeward: Restoring Hope and Nature in the Urban Wild, is a collection of sharp, evocative essays about her explorations and work as an avid naturalist and “citizen scientist” in her adopted city of Seattle. It was a finalist for a Washington State Book Award. (Click here to read Michael N. McGregor’s review of the book on WritingtheNorthwest.com.)

Scanlan’s work weaves  memoir with natural history to tell the story of a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest who learns that home isn’t simply where you live but also where you create belonging by helping restore the natural environment. Scanlan’s nature writing, personal essays, memoirs, and other creative nonfiction focus on repair, restoration, and resilience. Most of her writing comes from her life experiences, whether that’s being a mother, restoring salmon runs in city streams, or exploring landscapes of nature, spirit, family, politics, and community.

Scanlan is also a freelance developmental editor who works primarily with writers of creative nonfiction (personal essays, memoirs, narrative nonfiction, nature writing, and nontraditional or hybrid forms). She’s a graduate of the University of Washington’s Certificate in Editing program and a member of the Northwest Editors Guild (NWEG) and the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA).

From 2012 to 2017, she was the nonfiction editor of the Blue Lyra Review: A Literary Magazine of Diverse Voices. In recent years, she has reviewed books for the New York Journal of Books, with a particular interest in nature, science, the environment, Jewish life and culture, creativity, and the writing life.

A former New Yorker, she still reads the New York Times after 25 years in the Puget Sound region.

Our interviewer Michael N. McGregor is a Seattle-based author whose book Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax was a finalist for a Washington State Book Award. After growing up in Seattle, he earned a BA in journalism at the University of Oregon and an MFA in creative writing at Columbia University. A former journalist and professor of creative writing, he curates the website writingthenorthwest.com. You can learn more about him and his work, including his latest book, An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life, and his new novel, The Last Grand Tour, at michaelnmcgregor.com.