Best selling author Amy Stewart visited Bexley Wednesday, April 23 to discuss her work and most recent book, “The Tree Collectors.”
Stewart said she was inspired to start writing about botany due to her newfound interest in gardening.
“I moved out to Santa Cruz, California, which turned out to be the perfect place to plant a garden because the weather is perfect year-round,” she explained. “That turned into my first book, which was a memoir about planting a garden for the first time in my 20’s.”
Stewart has written 14 books, half of which are nonfiction and the other half are fiction, she said. Since her first garden book, “From the Ground Up,” her books have been tied together by a thread of environmental topics, such as earthworms and trees, she added.
Additionally, “The Tree Collectors” was the first book for which Stewart did all her own illustrations, she said. When she first started getting into art so that she could illustrate her books, she explained, she found oil painting enjoyable.
“It’s a lot like writing; it’s a lot about revision,” she said. “If something isn’t working, you wipe it off and start again.”
However, Stewart said she turned to paper-based art, which is more portable and better for book illustrations, and she used techniques such as watercolor in her most recent book.
“These are profiles of people who collect trees from all over the world,” she explained. “I did portraits of the people and the trees.”
Mary McMunn, a master gardener volunteer, brought Stewart in to speak, and she said that one of the gardens she works at is the Heritage Gardens at the governor’s residence. Heritage Gardens was created by Hope Taft, wife of the former Ohio governor, McMunn added.
“In the offseason [Taft] wanted a way for all the volunteers there to get together and stay connected,” McMunn said. “She asked me if I would set up monthly programs for the gardeners, and it sort of evolved from there.”
This program grew into bringing speakers into the Bexley Library for anyone to listen to.
“Now we do these programs once a month at the Bexley Library,” she said. “This particular event with Amy is part of the Bexley Arbor Day Celebration.”
McMann finds speakers to bring in through various sources, such as searching online or fielding suggestions, she explained.
“Someone suggested Amy, and I did my research and thought she was a perfect fit,” she said.
Additionally, Stewart was a well-suited pick because Bexley is an arboretum, meaning trees are cultivated in the city for display, which fits right in with Stewart’s book about collecting trees, McMann added.
Chloe Summer, who is currently shadowing Dr. Mabi Ponce De Leon and is a librarian at Broadley Elementary, said Stewart gave helpful insight about the book industry.
“It was really interesting to learn more about publishing and book printing,” she explained.
Stewart said a part of why she enjoys talking to people about her book is making connections and growing her fanbase.
“It’s in part to build readership,” she said. “That’s the whole deal with building an audience, writers and artists are expected to find their own audience.”
