Interview With Author Dan Handel
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I studied architecture for my bachelor’s degree and then continued to study the field for my master’s degree. So formally, it was always about architecture. But I found myself early on migrating toward everything that was happening beyond buildings. I was always drawn to the larger story, the underexplored figures and ideas that shaped contemporary built environments. This led me out of cities and into landscapes and places not investigated by architects and planners. Forests had become the subject of my new book which is also my first book!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The book is called Designed Forests: A Cultural History. It started with an experience I had when I was researching the subject of industrial forests. I visiting a forest in the Pacific Northwest, I noticed there was something eerie about the trees because they all looked exactly the same, like clones. I learned by looking into it that these thousands of trees were produced from the same genetic material and planted on the same date to grow together. It’s part of this practice of industrial forests. This experience led me to look further into it, and what is happening to our forests and cities and eventually write this book.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I know some very prolific writers who can write anywhere: they just switch on a mental button and can work in a busy café or a cramped room. I do not possess these abilities and came to notice that the space I am working in has a profound effect. Being an architect by training, I developed a special obsession with ultra-modernist spaces, and wrote most of this book in a huge, dead-quiet library space designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Ursula K. LeGuin’s novella, “The Word for World is Forest” really opened my eyes in her portrayal of the forest as an enmeshed environment of human and non-human voices. Andrea Wulf’s work, especially “The Invention of Nature”, was demonstrative in her ability to unpack complex scientific and philosophical discussions in accessible and fluent writing. Michael Pollan’s books, especially his first one “Second Nature”, were instructive for his developing of personal readings of vast subjects and owning it.
What are you working on now?
As an offshoot from the current book, I am now working on writing a global environmental history of wind and forest. Focusing on grand afforestation projects planted to slow down the wind, combat desertification, and control the movement of people, this work ventures into various parts of the world in different times, including Imperial China, India, the United States during the New Deal, Communist Russia, and Sahelian Africa, to redraw narratives of a world shaped by the meeting points between wind regimes.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This is the best website when it comes to promoting my books.
www.handandel.com
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Writing a book is not a straight line. It took me more than a decade of research to get to the point where I could envision a clear structure, in which each chapter follows one forest metaphor through time and space. During this time, the project developed and acquired more depth. So I would suggest to not hesitate to take on the route that is more interesting to you, rather than the one you “should” take, because this is how you get interesting books.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Michael Pollan wrote that the first book is like a point, and only with the second book a line is drawn between two points that begins to define you as a writer. So we all need patience.
What are you reading now?
William Dalrymple’s “The Golden Road”, a fantastic sweeping narrative about ancient India’s influence on the world through religion, philosophy, and science. Dalrymple’s writing style is accessible as it is well-researched, and is masterful in focusing on historical figures as a way of challenging our current worldviews.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Working on the proposal for the next book!
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
“Money and Class in America” by Lewis Lapham will give you a hilarious account of the follies you left behind. Benjamin Labatut’s “When we Cease to Understand the World” will assist in acquiring a higher state of observation. And Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” may help you see your island landscapes in a new way.
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