Interview: Sy Montgomery, Acclaimed Writer

Interview with Sy Montgomery, Acclaimed Writer

I had the pleasure of speaking with my beloved friend, Sy Montgomery, a naturalist, documentary scriptwriter, and author of 38 acclaimed books of nonfiction for adults and children, including the National Book Award Finalist The Soul of an Octopus and the memoir The Good Good Pig, Of Time and Turtles, both New York Times bestsellers. She is the recipient of numerous honors—including lifetime achievement awards from The Humane Society and the New England Booksellers Association. Sy gives a voice and amazing insight into many types of animals. Her adventurous spirit and poetic prose prompted The Boston Globe to describe her as “part Indiana Jones and part Emily Dickinson.” She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, border collie named Thurber, and three baby wood turtles she is raising, with a permit from the state, for release into the wild in the spring.

Sy and I, fortunately, crossed paths while I was finishing my book, Abandoned: Chronicling the Journeys of Once-Forsaken Dogs, and my life has been greatly enriched. My daughter, Alex, shares Sy’s great love and admiration for animals, and they have become recent pen pals, which she loves, along with reading Sy’s children’s books—Alex absolutely loves Becoming a Good Creature!

“Go out into the world where your heart calls you. The blessing will come, I promise you that. I wish for you the insight to recognize the blessings as such, and sometimes it is hard. But you’ll know it’s a blessing if you are enriched and transformed by the experience. So be ready. There are great souls and teachers everywhere. It’s your job to recognize them.” –Sy Montgomery

KATHERINE CARVER: How do your ideas for your books come to you?

SY MONTGOMERY: It really varies. For example, I was visiting India writing a book on man eating tigers, and I saw pink dolphins in the Ganges, and that inspired me to find out more about the pink dolphins in the Amazon. Years later, while giving a talk about that book at the Roger Williams Park Zoo located in Rhode Island, my host there told me about her research studying Matschie’s tree kangaroos in Papua New Guinea—and a few years later, I would go there with her to write a book about her work. Complete serendipity!

But for other books, the process was different. For The Soul of an Octopus and Of Time and Turtles, I thought long and hard in my soul about what I needed to work on. And this was the case too with my first book, Walking with the Great Apes. I wanted that first book to be a tribute to my mentors: Dr. Jane Goodall; Dr. Dian Fossey; and Dr. Birute Galdikas.

The Soul of an Octopus explores the philosophical mystery of consciousness. For four decades, I’d been writing about how smart animals are and that they do indeed think, feel, and know. However, it was not until 2011, when I met Athena, a Giant Pacific Octopus, that I found the way to talk about consciousness in animals—through experiencing friendships with animals so different from us, you’d have to go to outer space to find someone more alien. Octopuses and humans are separated by half a billion years of evolution. We breathe air; they breathe water; we have bones; they have none; they change color and shape, taste with all their skin, possess venom, shoot ink, and pour their baggy, boneless bodies through tiny openings. And yet, I found, you can make friends with an octopus, who is very clearly a conscious being, just like we are conscious.

In 2023, Of Time and Turtles, was published. It was conceived as a companion to The Soul of an Octopus—it tackles the other great mystery of philosophy besides consciousness, and that is time. Who better to explore time with than turtles, who arose at the time of the dinosaurs and live to such a great age? And, as it turned out, the pandemic was a great teacher of time—and working during that time at a turtle rescue, helping to mend the broken shells of turtles, was a healing balm.

KATHERINE CARVER: How did you get so interested in studying animals in your work?

SY MONTGOMERY: I told my parents, when I was young, that I thought I was a horse, and I then realized I was a dog! I completely felt I had an animal’s soul. I was born in 1958 and, back then, a woman could be: a stewardess, a nurse, or a teacher—not a jungle explorer. I thought initially, I might be a veterinarian. However, when I started to read, I realized that writing could be a vehicle to helping animals, too. I wanted to show people these wonderful animals so they would fall in love with them as I did. Ultimately, the deeper the affection for the natural world can lead to action.

KATHERINE CARVER: Do you have any rituals or practices that helps you get into the flow of your writing?

SY MONTGOMERY: What helps me get into the flow of writing is just being in my office, which is filled with posters, books, and memorabilia. I just love my office, so it affords me a great environment for me to write. My dog, Thurber, is always close by as well, which adds warmth to my environment.

When I am writing, and not promoting a book, I do not answer the phone in the morning; I check my email once in the morning; and I do not text. My husband, Howard Mansfield, is also a writer and, he also works from home, and we have separate offices in different parts of the house, and we do not bother each other, but I am aware of his presence, which is wonderful. I met my husband at Syracuse University, while we were college students and we both worked on the student newspaper!

Additionally, you must make the writing happen, even during those times, that you do not always feel like writing. There was a time in my life, where I experienced great loss for a period; however, when I was around tree kangaroos on the expedition to the cloud forests in Papua, New Guinea, something lifted and changed. I wrote about this in my memoir How to be a Good Creature and its children’s book companion, Becoming a Good Creature. One thing this taught me is that even when you feel despair, you can trust that something wonderful may be waiting to happen right around the corner.

KATHERINE CARVER: You exude so much positivity, has this always been the case?

SY MONTGOMERY: I believe it is innate, the way I am. As a young child, I moved around a lot; my dad was a POW, and it helped to shape my perspective that it is great to wake up and be free! My husband and I both work for ourselves and work from our home, we live on eight acres of beautiful land in a wonderful town, and we are truly happy. We do not need a bunch of stuff; I wake up each morning and tell my husband I love him so much, along with our dog, Thurber, and then I make us all a great breakfast. Next, we walk the dog, and I get to spend the remainder of the day writing about animals! I could not be happier!

KATHERINE CARVER: Who inspires your work?

SY MONTGOMERY: As mentioned earlier, the people who inspire my work are: Dr. Jane Goodall; Dr. Dian Fossey; and Dr. Birute Galdikas. Additionally, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, my best friend and fellow writer inspires me and my work; and my husband, Howard Mansfield, is my first reader and he greatly inspires my work.

KATHERINE CARVER: What are you working on now?

SY MONTGOMERY: This fall, I have a children’s book that will be released, which is illustrated by Matt Patterson about our friend, Fire Chief, a 42 pound wild snapping turtle; I am working with Matt on another picture book about caterpillars; I am currently writing essays to accompany a new edition of National Geographic’s Photo Ark book of Joel Sartore’s photographs of animals; and I am writing a book on last summer’s scuba expedition studying giant oceanic manta rays with researcher Michel Guerrero.

KATHERINE CARVER: What are you most proud of?

SY MONTGOMERY: My husband—Howard Mansfield’s work! He is really the writer in the family! He is really the writer in the family!

In terms of my own work, I feel proud that, working alongside many, many others—scientists, authors, artists, lawyers, policy makers—we are starting to move the needle to return to what our kind has known for millennia: that animals think, feel, and know—and deserve not only our respect, but our awe in their presence.

KATHERINE CARVER: What advice do you have for creative people?

SY MONTGOMERY: When you cannot believe in yourself, believe in your teachers and inspiration. And do the work and then attend to your feelings about yourself. Most of all, focus on what you love.

KATHERINE CARVER: Do you have a favorite mantra or quote that you live by?

SY MONTGOMERY:  This is attributed to the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus: “The universe is alive, and has fire in it, and is full of gods.” Which means, to me, that our world is incandescent with minds both like and unlike our own—and all of them are holy.

For further reading, please visit Sy Montogmery’s website.

All images contained in this interview were used with the permission of Sy Montgomery.