Writing for the world – Common Read author Sy Montgomery shared her experience with students

If God asked Sy Montgomery what she would change about the world, she would ask that dogs live longer.

From a young age, the natural science writer fostered a love for animals. Before Montgomery learned how to read, she also found inspiration in the pages of National Geographic — specifically from photos of one of her heroes, the British primatologist Jane Goodall.

“I was looking at a picture of her in National Geographic, she was studying a chimpanzee and I thought, ‘Wow, here she is, this slender young woman reaching out, literally reaching out, to this powerful chimpanzee in Africa,’” Montgomery said. “So, that’s kind of what I wanted to do — it named it in pictures. I wanted to reach out to wild animals and ask them, ‘Who are you? What’s it like to be you?’”

While she wanted to work with animals like Jane Goodall, at the time, Montgomery thought her only career option was to become a veterinarian.

“Before I could read, I wanted to be a veterinarian, to be with animals,” Montgomery said. “When I was born, people didn’t have the idea that you could do what I do, and even the idea of going into the wild and studying animals to see what they did was pretty new.”

After learning to read, Montgomery felt that she could better help animals by telling their stories. Montgomery said she took an interest in the publication her father, whom she admired, read most — the New York Times.

Her favorite stories, the ones about animals, often focused on the negative impacts humans had upon nature. Although words like pollution, deforestation and extinction were relatively new, Montgomery said the ideas horrified her.

“I was devastated to learn that dinosaurs were extinct, when I learned that this could happen to eagles and whales and elephants — not just that it could happen, but that it was happening and was happening at our hands, that was when I think I first decided I wanted to be a writer,” she said.

Now, at 58, Montgomery is a natural science writer who has written more than 20 books for children and adults.

Her first book, “Walking with the Great Apes,” was written as an homage to her heroines, Jane Goodall, Diane Fossey and Birute Galdikas. After that first book, Montgomery said one story led to the next.

“The next book I thought I’d write about predators, that was ‘Spell of the Tiger.’ From there, one book led to another,” Montgomery said. “I first saw river dolphins while researching ‘Spell of the Tiger’ in India. When I was researching river dolphins, I met a guy who had seen a golden moon bear … I met him in the Amazon and he told me about it — that became that book.”

Her most recent book, “The Soul of an Octopus,” was a 2015 finalist for the National Book Award and is currently the University of Idaho Common Read for the 2016-2017 academic year.

She said she decided to write about octopuses after she noticed that almost all of her books were written about terrestrial vertebrates.

While researching octopuses for the book, she had so much fun that she drove home from trips to the New England Aquarium singing in the car.

“I had more fun researching this book than any book ever in my life,” Montgomery said. “It was three years of research. I traveled to and from the aquarium once a week to visit with the octopuses and the other days I did library research, conducted phone interviews, I learned to scuba dive.”

Montgomery visited UI Monday to speak about her experiences conducting research for the book. In addition to speaking with students, Montgomery said she was also excited to meet up with UI researchers to learn more about giant Palouse earthworms.

At a lunch held for ISEM students on Monday, the Common Read author shared advice about life, writing and traveling. She said while the logistical secret to traveling is to always carry moist towelettes, the important thing for students to remember is that everyone they meet has the potential to help them grow.

“Teachers are all around us. We need to recognize them and listen to their truth,” Montgomery said.

Corrin Bond can be reached at

[email protected]

or on Twitter @CorrBond

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