From fiction writing, to chronicling Charles Darwin, to hiking through the Democratic Republic of the Congo, award-winning, freelance, conservation journalist David Quammen has tried it all.
As part of the Ohio University Frontiers in Science Lecture Series, Quammen will discuss his book The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of his Theory of Evolution at 7:30 tonight at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. OU's Kennedy Lecture Series is bringing Quammen to OU for $13,000, funded in part by a contribution to the OU Foundation from alumni Jeanette Grasselli Brown and Glenn Brown.
The Post's Emma Morehart spoke with Quammen about conservation journalism, writing freelance and traveling the world.
The Post: How did you get involved in conservation journalism?
David Quammen: I was always interested in the natural world and ... writing. That goes back to about the age of 8 or 9, probably. ... My concern with ... preventing the total destruction of the natural world by human activities is something that's always been there.
Post: What would you say is the biggest advantage to being a freelance journalist?
Quammen: It gives me a lot of freedom in various ways. ... I think of it as working without a net. You don't get a pension; you don't get health care; but you get a lot of freedom.
Post: What's the biggest obstacle you have faced as a freelancer that you might not have otherwise?
Quammen: Making a living every month. It's a little bit scary, but it's also very satisfying because in exchange for that insecurity you get the freedom. My life is divided 50/50 between doing work ... as a freelancer and doing work on a particular book project.
Post: What would you consider to be your biggest accomplishment?
Quammen: I'd say my greatest accomplishment is to have been able to continue to be a freelancer for going on 40 years ... to work without a boss, without a real job, and be able to ... travel the world and write the things that I most care about.
Post: Where is the most interesting place you've ever gone on assignment?
Quammen: Well, it's hard to pick one, but the Congo is one of my favorite places. I spent a lot of time walking across the forests of the Congo with a wonderfully crazy American biologist named Mike Fay. I did a 2,000-mile walk through the Congo forest ... and I walked long stretches of that with him ... day after day, week upon week, walking in a pair of river sandals and shorts.
Post: What advice would you give to young writers considering freelance work?
Quammen: Don't quit your day job yet. If there's something else that you would be just as happy doing, do that. But if it is the one thing you want to do more than anything else, then just do it. Create the pages whether or not anybody is publishing them or paying for them.
3 Culture
Emma Morehart
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