A much needed book! Nearly two dozen essays from Black women and nonbinary/gender nonconforming people.

A great collection of essays and poems by Black authors who work or recreate in the outdoors. I especially liked the essay by Camille Mosley about their experience living and working on the Gulf.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

This is a hard review for me to write because while there is nothing wrong with Been Outside, I still didn’t enjoy it as much as I had expected to. And as a white individual, I’m trying to balance my own personal impressions with how I imagine this collection might powerfully impact others.

You see, the introduction had me super excited. It asks questions such as, “Who goes outside? Who defines the expert?” It points out hard truths such as, “White supremacy declared these hiking routes new and waiting to be conquered.” It educates on the existence of the nature gap due to social determinants. These are the conversations I have been craving.

Unfortunately, I had a harder time feeling excited about the four sections once I actually got into them: How We Arrived (identity), All In (inspiration), Walking Ancestral Paths (ancestry), and Growing Together (stewardship). While I liked this organization in theory, I personally struggled to feel a sense of cohesion within them. Instead, entries from all throughout the book seemed to blend together in my mind.

To be fair, some of this may be due to the fact that I had expected a book that was more focused on sociological aspects of racism within outdoor recreation (and ideally how to help combat that). And while these topics were certainly present, they were approached primarily through a very individualized view rather than a macro one. Combined with the fact that many of the pieces were focused on the professional field of natural scientific research (a topic I know very little about), I found myself having trouble distinguishing the details from one account to the next any time I took a reading break.

Despite all this, I do recognize and appreciate the important representation that this book offers. There’s not many chances to see Black, femme, non-binary, and/or Queer folks in science. And after reading so many stories of individuals struggling to feel like they belong, I’m even more glad that this book exists for younger generations. Especially since it encompasses so much Black joy.

While I may not have fallen in love with many of these stories as a simple hiker, I did love the way that it expanded what it means to be “outdoorsy.” And I know that my own mediocre levels of enjoyment are most likely due to simply not being who this book was rightfully intended for.

I really enjoyed reading a compilation of different perspectives and experiences of being a Black woman or nonbinary scientist studying the natural world. While I enjoyed each piece and its uniqueness, the one that touched me the most was about a little girl finally seeing someone like her studying wildlife.

The book gave me understanding at how black, queer people on the "outside" world. It's a very eye-opening book coming from the first person that telling these stories.

this book was such a treat. As a lifelong nature lover, I knew I wanted to savor this so I read it slowly over the course of a couple months and I’m so glad I did! I also took a class about women in science when I was in college, and this book brought me back into my Unsung Heroes of Science reading phase.

These essays, poems, and stories run the gamut between humorous, inspirational, charming, and cathartic. I loved the focus on community, the jaunts into different types of experiences in nature, and how different everyone’s writing style was.

I’m so excited to give this book to half of the people in my life for christmas this year!!!!

rep: Black, queer, multi/biracial, disability rep

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Mountaineers Books; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

Full disclosure: I did not finish this book before it expired at roughly 30% of the way through. This is not due to anything lacking on the part of this book; it was a beautiful, intimate look at how a variety of people experienced nature frequently as a healing, grounding experience. As a dedicated indoors nerd, I could still appreciate how important these experiences are, and would fully recommend this book to anyone who is even remotely intrigued by the subject. I place the blame at my attention span for reading nonfiction, but am so glad I read as much as I did!

The best part of Been Outside is that it provides an insight into the relationships that Black people have with nature and their experiences working in STEM fields. People of color are and women are severely underrepresented in this realm. As Latina, I was very excited to read this book and see women of color and hear their stories. I learned so much about the the discrimination, barriers, and misconceptions that Black women face while being out in nature.

Another meaningful aspect of Been Outside was the real life examples of internships, projects, experiments, and areas of study. I was amazed by the variety of ways that nature can be studied and the career opportunities for those interested in working outside with nature. Any person interested in these types of careers would find value in reading about the authors' experiences and insight.

The last thing that I enjoyed about this book was the variety of voices and writing styles. Each author had their own way of telling their story. Readers will enjoy a mix of essays, short stories, and even poems. There was also advice shared for allies on how to help support and make the outdoors a safer space for Black people to enjoy and study. Been Outside has open my eyes to consider the experience of being out in nature in a new way. Now I am encouraged to think about the accessibility of nature for others that also face barriers.

Been Outside is a thoughtful collection of essays and recollections on the power of nature and the outdoor experience from the point of view of gender nonconforming, nonbinary, and women of color edited by Drs. Amber Wendler and Shaz Zamore. Released 1st Oct 2023 by Mountaineers Books, it's 208 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

Science and medicine have long been in consensus about the undeniable mental and physiological benefits of being outdoors and interacting with nature. There's a large disconnect between representation of non"mainstream" nature lovers in the media: the vast majority are white, college educated, middle class +. The real truth is much more complex and nuanced (completely ignoring the millennia of indigenous people who have learned and interacted with nature as a matter of course, which is the *point*, in many/most cases they've been ignored or erased). This book grew out of a desire to document the experiences and knowledge of black, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming nature lovers and that is exactly what they have done.

Although the editors started their process by concentrating on gathering the stories of STEM folks (they're both STEM educators, and started with their wider peer groups), the book grew to include stories written by academics in other fields, alongside creative writers and outdoors enthusiasts. It's heavily weighted toward academics, but the writing is very much layman accessible, readable, and often thought provoking.

It's interesting and educational. Representation is -so- important and it's to be sincerely hoped that this book will encourage and pave the way for more young people in STEM fields.

Five stars. There are woefully few books with a focus on diversity in STEM which are layman accessible. This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, gifting, or home use.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I love this book, especially for autumn. It’s a beautiful time to get outside, and this (re)defining collection highlights the adventures, challenges, joys and lessons of 22 Black women, nonbinary and gender noncomforming individuals from a variety of backgrounds, identities, fields and experience levels.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

I loved getting to know these Black folk's stories about nature, their connection to it and their fights to make it a safe(r) space. The motifs of familly, peace, exploration, and struggle weaved itself from story to story like a tapestry. 

I found myself relating to some aspects, which made me even more joyful about my own budding fascination with and interest in nature.

Powerful collection of stories of black women and nonbinary scientists and their stories of being outside.
My favorites were
Discovering Seasonal Lee, Title TK,
A Home in Climbing, Out Here,
Together We Turn, and
The (Un)Written Rulebook.

And it was important for me to connect the dots and realize just how far back
white supremacy goes in the outdoor world from colonized names of mountain passes and rock climbing paths to even botanical naming systems. And how unwelcome white supremacy has tried to make people of color in the outdoors which should be free and safe for everyone, let alone these expert scientists.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Mountaineers Books for providing me with an eARC of Been Outside! This book is an incredible collection of works from such an incredible collection of authors! In reading this book, I realized how few works there really are that are as encouraging of finding a connection with nature through the lens of being in a minority group. Each piece in this collection gave me a new perspective on nature, science, and the world as a whole and genuinely made me feel a hope for the future that I have not felt in a long time. I highly recommend this book.

This book was well-done, I was just not able to get into it. I thought the idea was wonderful, but I struggled to enjoy the individual stories.

This collection of essays is quite enlightening and thought-provoking in terms of topic. It enhances the curiosity surrounding nature as mysterious as it is, and the roles of Black, non-conforming scientists in relating their lives to the life cycle of nature itself.

I would recommend this as an essential reading to understand the transcendent dynamic of gender, and for those with the interest in ecological topics.

This was such a lovely book.

As a mushroom enjoyer foremost I enjoy spending time in nature, although I don't do it very often as nature is very inaccessible sadly. Then as someone who used to study biology I enjoy the science part of nature just as much. This book both spoke to me in those two interests and I absolutely loved it.

Instead of the author telling a story and pointing out all the problems with the overly white science of nature, this book chooses to let different kinds of people talk about their relationship with nature and the things they experience while enjoying that. Most of the people in the book were researchers but not all of them were. There were so many fields of science discussed and different kinds of nature enjoyers, from birders to marine biologists to people who enjoy hiking or surfing. It made the book incredibly varied while still having the overarching theme of being Black in this white dominant field.

This theme was done incredibly well and I learned a lot from it. It showed examples of how these things are incredibly white and opened up my eyes for things I still had to learn. It told experiences of discrimination but also many moments of beautiful Black joy. As a white person it gave me a peek into their experiences which is extremely valuable and I can't thank the people who wrote in this enough.

It was also amazing to read of all these people enjoying nature in their own way. It made me see that nature is so different for everyone. Some people go out for the silence while others always went with groups to have communal fun. It made me feel so incredibly happy to see so many people finding their place in nature that this book totally made me smile a lot.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys nature and wants to read about others who do too, while learning more how it is to be in that field while being Black and a women and/or nonbinary.

A number of these stories are familiar narratives of learning to love the outdoors, but starting from a more distant starting point (one person is still the only one in their family who's gone camping) and working through barriers, assumptions, and discrimination. But that familiarity is a good thing. The outdoors is for everyone.

Others have a cultural resonance, like the two that talk about the black craft and culture of fishing and seafood, and the ones that do ecological research in Africa and local black communities.

As a white cis-het male, the most interesting piece was "The (Un)written Rulebook" by Jasmine Graham, because of the detailed instructions for how to be an ally. For someone who has lived this, the article might be the least interesting one because they know it so well.

There is something for everyone here and we need more of these stories.

Been Outside
by Shaz Zamore, Amber Wendler.
An odd collection of essays and poetry to show the connection of nature with African scientists around the world. Their personal experiences, and struggles will help classrooms and children to not be afraid to try something new in nature.

I am a queer, white outdoors enthusiast and want to learn more of how to be respectful of the land I am on while hiking, climbing, paddling as a white person. This book gave great insight into contextualizing the racial histories of the land we are on, and how to close the gaps in accessibility for minorities on outdoor rec. I really enjoyed this collection and all the experiences shared in here.