The Word for Woman Is Wilderness

This is a new kind of nature writing — one that crosses fiction with science writing and puts gender politics at the center of the landscape.

Erin, a 19-year-old girl from middle England, is traveling to Alaska on a journey that takes her through Iceland, Greenland, and across Canada. She is making a documentary about how men are allowed to express this kind of individualism and personal freedom more than women are, based on masculinist ideas of survivalism and the shunning of society: the “Mountain Man.” She plans to culminate her journey with an experiment: living in a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, a la Thoreau, to explore it from a feminist perspective.

The book is a fictional time capsule curated by Erin, comprising of personal narrative, fact, anecdote, images and maps, on subjects as diverse as The Golden Records, Voyager 1, the moon landings, the appropriation of Native land and culture, Rachel Carson, The Order of The Dolphin, The Doomsday Clock, Ted Kaczynski, Valentina Tereshkova, Jack London, Thoreau, Darwin, Nuclear war, The Letters of Last Resort and the pill, amongst many other topics.

The Word for Woman Is Wilderness is bold and inventive, both adventure story and statement, that introduces a fierce new talent in Abi Andrews.

"This deeply feminist adventure tale is a splendid, innovative response to the genre of masculine travelogue."
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"A great read: through the adventures of her protagonist Erin, Andrews challenges the traditional patriarchal narratives of adventure, exploration, and constructs of 'wilderness' in a story that is equal parts witty, charming, and deeply compelling."
—Yvonne C. Garrett, The Brooklyn Rail

"Erin is a captivating heroine—funny, feminist and intensely curious, she riffs on Bear Grylls, the beauty of the natural world and the contraceptive pill as she makes her way to a tiny cabin in desolate Denali. Brilliantly odd, and oddly brilliant."
—Eithne Farry, Daily Mail

"The Word for Woman Is Wilderness is unlike any published work I have read, in ways that are beguiling, audacious... rises to its own challenges in engaging intellectually as well as wholeheartedly with its questions about gender, genre and the concept of wilderness. The novel displays wide reading, clever writing and amusing dialogue."
—Sarah Moss, The GuardianAbi Andrews is a writer from the Midlands, England. She studied Creative Writing at Goldsmiths college in London, and her work has been published in Five Dials, Caught by the River, The Clearing, The Dark Mountain Project, Tender and other journals, along with a pamphlet published with Goldsmiths Shorts. Her debut novel The Word for Woman Is Wilderness was originally published by Serpent’s Tail in February 2018 and Hoffmann und Campe in October 2018.