Gloria Dickie - Eight Bears

Bears have long held a central place in our collective memory, from Indigenous folklore and Greek mythology to mediaeval fairytales and the modern toy shop. But as humans and bears come into ever-closer contact, our relationship nears a tipping point. Today, only eight bear species remain, some icons of the natural world (such as the panda bear and the polar bear), others obscure (such as the spectacled bear and the sloth bear). From the cloud forests of the Andes to the ice floes of the Arctic, the jungles of India to the backwoods of the Rocky Mountain West, award-winning journalist and environmental reporter Gloria Dickie explores each bear’s story, meeting figures on the front lines of conservation efforts and explaining the unparalleled challenges bears face.

Grab your tickets to meet Gloria as she joins us on stage to reveal our volatile relationship with these magnificent mammals and what we risk losing if we don’t learn to live alongside them. 

Gloria’s book Eight Bears will be available to purchase at the Festival book store over the Festival weekend.

There will be a book signing straight after the event.

Published by W.W. Norton.

Reviews:

“Eight Bears is science journalism at its best: thoroughly researched, carefully conceived, and vividly written.” - Nate Blakeslee, author of American Wolf

“A definitive and magisterial account.... This book is essential reading about the ongoing Anthropocene collision between humanity and the rest of the natural world.” - James Balog, director of Earth Vision Institute and A.D. White Professor-at-Large, Cornell University

“At once heartbreaking and hopeful, steeped in science and rich in poetry, Eight Bears is an intrepid investigation into the harms we've inflicted upon bears--and proof that we still have the power to save our ursine brethren.” - Ben Goldfarb, award-winning author of Eager

“Written with deep compassion and striking humor, Eight Bears provides a deep and clarifying understanding of our history of ursine kinship.” - Lyndsie Bourgon, author of Tree Thieves

About Gloria Dickie

Gloria Dickie is a global climate and environment correspondent at Reuters. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, the Guardian, National Geographic, Scientific American, and the Atlantic, among others.