Lydia Wylie-Kellermann: This Book Was Inside of Me Needing To Get Out

Lydia Wylie-Kellermann is a writer, editor, activist, and mother. She is director of Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center and the editor of The Sandbox Revolution: Raising Kids for a Just World. Lydia’s writing has appeared in Sojourners, Red Letter Christians, Geez Magazine, and various Catholic Worker papers, and she is a contributor to multiple books. She lives with her partner and two boys in Bangor, Pennsylvania. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

In this interview, Lydia discusses the necessary feedback she received at a writers retreat to help her write her new work of creative nonfiction, This Sweet Earth, her hope for readers, and more!

Name: Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
Book title: This Sweet Earth: Walking with our Children in the Age of Climate Collapse
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
Release date: July 23, 2024
Genre/category: Creative nonfiction
Previous titles: The Sandbox Revolution: Raising Kids for a Just World
Elevator pitch: Climate anxiety touches nearly everything we do, but perhaps nothing so tenderly as our parenting. What do we do with the fear, grief, and anger we feel? Parent and activist Lydia Wylie-Kellermann wrestles with these questions and argues that while the future remains unknown, we can still join our children in the beauty and hope of the struggle.

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What prompted you to write this book?

This book was inside of me needing to get out. I never expected how much having children would change me. Their hearts, their questions, their hands in the dirt, altered the fabric of my being. My kids were teaching me a different way to inhabit my ecosystem—a way that reached forwards and backwards through the generations. And at the same time, I knew I was not alone in feeling moments of overwhelming despair and helplessness. Yet, I believe with my whole heart that there is a way to live into this crisis fully alive with joy.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

Well, my eldest is 11 years old. I suppose that this book has been percolating in me since before he was born. With each day brought new fears as climate change accelerated before my eyes. And with each hour I held him in my arms, I seemed to fall more in love with the world, and my dreams for the future of the planet only grew.

I scribbled out an outline in June of 2022. Put together a book proposal by August. Had a contract a month later. Turned in the manuscipts August 2023. And less than a year later, it is entering into the world.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

There was a moment just before I turned in the book proposal that I truly almost threw out the whole project. I was on a writers retreat with Collegeville Institute where I spent time looking over chapters, and it felt like a mess. When folks asked what the book was about, I couldn’t explain it. I literally pulled pages out my notebook and had thrown them into the trash.

And then, I went to a previously scheduled meeting with our writing coach, Michael McGregor. I imagined talking about what new project I should pivet toward. Instead, he pulled out the few pages I had given him and he said “You have to write this book.”

I am so grateful for that moment. So much of writing is solitary work. Our hearts and minds wrap around the work with beauty and imagination, but also with doubt and critique. Writing depends on community. We need folks to read, challenge, encourage, and reimagine the words on the pages. We need one another.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I wrote this book during one of the hardest years of my life. I was in the midst of overwhelming life transitions. I had too much on my plate. I look back and wonder how on earth I wrote a book that year!

But the truth is that the writing of this book saved me. These stories kept my body grounded to the earth. And while the book starts from a place of anxiety and despair, that deeper in I got, the more hopeful I became. In every step and in each sentence, I stumbled upon beauty and gratitude.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

Children’s book author Laura Alary said, “This book left me feeling both calmer and braver.” I think that is my hope for readers. Moving forward, we are going to need courageous communities. I hope that this book is a real invitation to community, because we cannot do this work alone. And together, we can give one another permission to joyfully change everything!

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Write what you love. Write what you need. Let it be a place of joy and soul tending.

And don’t forget that we are just one small part of a conversation that has been going on long before we were here and will go on after. Let your words be a part of the conversation.

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