The Wild Kindness
A Psilocybin Odyssey
APT TIMING: The Decriminalize Nature Movement has gained traction in major cities, resulting in a recent surge of public interest in the appropriate use and legalization of psilocybin mushrooms and other plant-based medicine.
A TRAILBLAZING MEMOIR: With the lyricism of Charlotte Runcie's Salt On Your Tongue and in the way that Gabriela Wiener's Sexographies transformed how we think of the human body and mind, The Wild Kindness is a lyrical, unprecedented portrayal of psilocybin mushrooms as a source of personal healing and transformation.
RESPECTED AUTHOR: Williams has published two books previously and her work has also been published by Lenny Letter, Out Magazine, and the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines.
BUILT-IN AUDIENCE: Williams and her partner, Beth Hill, produce a podcast called No Cures, Only Alchemy, for which they won the 2018 Kindle Foundation Maker’s Muse Award.
CONTEMPORARY THEMES: As a timely response to the current flood of New Age products in mainstream culture, Williams reminds us of the implications of race, cultural appropriation, and indigenous rights surrounding psilocybin mushrooms.
BETT WILLIAMS is the author of The Wild Kindness; A Psilocybin Odyssey (Dottir Press, Fall 2020), a memoir about growing mushrooms in the high desert of New Mexico. Her novel, Girl Walking Backwards (St. Martin’s Press) was mentioned as one of the 10 Best Young Adult Queer Novels in Vogue magazine. Dennis Cooper said of her 2003 memoir, The Wrestling Party (Alyson Press), Fantastic. An absolute dream of a book. Bett Williams writing has brains, charisma beauty and wit. She was a featured speaker at Kai Wingo’s 2015 Women and Entheogen’s Conference and the Horizons Perspectives on Psychedelics Conference in 2018. She and her partner, Beth Hill, host No Cures, Only Alchemy, an event series and podcast centered around psychedelics and culture making. In 2018 they received the Kindle Project Maker’s Muse Award. She has written for many publications, including DoubleBlind, OUT Magazine, Flaunt, Lucid News and Lenny Letter.
