Bird Talk

Bird Talk is a lyrical exploration of grief, language, and the limits of communication.

After losing her mother, the author embarks on a wandering journey—part research, part invention—through archives, animal studies, and the history of language. Along the way, she begins to develop a new writing system: one that could capture birdsong and allow for imagined conversations with birds. These poetic exchanges become a way to reach for what cannot be said, to give shape to absence.

Rather than offering answers, the book invites the reader into an open-ended process. Ideas take form and then dissolve; new symbols emerge only to scatter again. Through this delicate, searching approach, Bird Talk evokes the beauty and futility of trying to translate between species, and between the living and the lost.