Mothership, Greg Wrenn
Mothership, Greg Wrenn
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Mothership
A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis

Author: Greg Wrenn

Narrator: Greg Wrenn

Unabridged: 7 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/30/2024


Synopsis

Professor Greg Wrenn likes to tell his nature-writing students, "The ecological is personal, and the personal is ecological." What he's never told them is how he's lived out those correspondences to heal from childhood abuse at the hands of his mother.

Weaving together memoir and cutting-edge science, Mothership is not just a queer coming-of-age story. It's a deeply researched account of how coral reefs and a psychedelic tea called ayahuasca helped Greg heal from complex PTSD—a disorder of trust, which makes the very act of bonding with someone else panic-inducing. From the tide pools in Florida where he grew up, to Indonesia's Raja Ampat archipelago and the Amazon rainforest, this is his search for wholeness when talk therapy and pharmaceuticals did little to help. Along the way, as his ecological conscience wakes up, he takes listeners underwater to the last pristine reefs on earth, and into the psyche.

Written with prophetic urgency, Mothership ultimately asks if doses of nature will be enough to save us before it's too late.

About Greg Wrenn

A former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, Greg Wrenn is the author of Centaur (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013), which National Book Award-winning poet Terrance Hayes awarded the Brittingham Prize in Poetry.

Greg's work has appeared in the New Republic, Al Jazeera, the Rumpus, Kenyon Review, New England Review, the Iowa Review, and elsewhere. He has received awards and fellowships from the James Merrill House, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Poetry Society of America.

As an associate English professor, Greg teaches environmental literature and creative writing at James Madison University, where he weaves climate change science into literary studies. He was educated at Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis.

Greg is a trained yoga teacher and a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver, exploring coral reefs around the world for over twenty-five years. He lives in the mountains of Virginia with his husband and their growing family of trees.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Luke on May 08, 2024

Greg shares his personal story powerfully and poignantly (without unloading all of his trauma on you), ties together a ton of science and research (in a highly entertaining and digestible way), and makes a really strong case for saving yourself so you can hopefully help save the planet. I feel like a......more

Goodreads review by Zera on May 27, 2024

I have been a student for Wrenn. He walks his talk. This was a moving memoir; moved me towards more compassion for people and the Earth!......more

Goodreads review by Lori on February 29, 2024

Hard to categorize as a genre, but a compelling journey of exploration of self and sea ... a memoir about trauma, healing and wonder. The author shares his journey of processing the shame he was subjected to. Along the way he finds hope and help in nature, from coral reefs, majestic sea creatures an......more

Goodreads review by Mel on April 10, 2025

4.4 stars - this book felt super intimate and I learned so much. the book is raw; no bs, no sugarcoating. he brings you to an eye level perspective for what it’s like to live with C-PTSD, be gay in conservative florida, the healing properties of the earth, and use psychedelics for healing. portions......more

Goodreads review by Mari on March 18, 2024

Beautifully written memoir that speaks to the power of nature in keeping us grounded and stable. After years of childhood abuse, the author finds healing in the ocean. The author cares deeply about the Earth and shared about the coral reefs in away that seemed to be in parallel with our human pain a......more