The Weedy Garden
“The natural world glows in these pages. This book pays attention to everything and reminds children to do the same.”
~School Library Journal
“Margaret Renkl invites readers to imagine themselves as different animals living among the thriving blooms. The succinct text. results in a soothing read-aloud, with poetic, sensorial language brimming with vocabulary-boosting descriptors that paint as vivid a picture as the splashy multi-media collage art provided by Billy Renkl, the author’s brother. Bursting with primary colors, his deeply layered floral extravaganza pops. Linger over this exquisite garden filled with earthly delights.”
~Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Billy Renkl’s arresting mixed-media and collage illustrations showcase a wide variety of plants, some sharp in lines and deep in color, others soft and muted, as though they could be peeled back to reveal more of this hidden world. The rich evocative language paired with the second-person narration makes for a gentle read-together experience or a transitional book for readers gaining confidence.”
~Booklist
“A friendly message of creaturely community.”
~Publisher’s Weekly
Margaret Renkl is the author of The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, which won the 2024 Southern Book Prize and was Reese’s Book Club’s 100th pick. Her earlier books are Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss (2019), which won the Reed Environmental Writing Award in 2020; and Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South (2021), which won both the Southern Book Prize and the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay in 2022. The companion journal for The Comfort of Crows—Leaf, Cloud, Crow: A Weekly Backyard Journal—appeared in 2024. Her first picture book, The Weedy Garden, is out now.
For nine years (2017-2026) Renkl was a contributing Opinion writer for The New York Times. Her column focused on the flora, fauna, politics, and culture of the American South. (You can read the entire archive here.)
The founding editor of Chapter 16, a daily literary publication of Humanities Tennessee, and a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Carolina, she lives in Nashville.
Margaret’s Team
Publicity, HarperCollins
Lindsey Triebel
Publicity, Spiegel & Grau
Nicole Dewey
Literary Agent, Empire Literary
Kristyn Keene Benton
Speaking Agent, Authors Unbound
Christie Hinrichs
View my speaker profile here.
Downloadable Media Materials
High-res author photo for Margaret Renkl
credit William DeShazer
High-res book jacket for The Weedy Garden
High-res book jacket for Late Migrations
High-res book jacket for Graceland, At Last
High-res book jacket for Graceland, At Last (paperback)
High-res book jacket for The Comfort of Crows
High-res book jacket for Leaf, Cloud, Crow
Mailing Address
5421 Highway 100 #59264
Nashville, TN 37205-9998