Q&A with Priyanka Kumar

 

Photo by Molly Wagoner

 

 

Priyanka Kumar is the author of the new book The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit. She also has written the book Conversations with Birds. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Light Between Apple Trees?

 

A: When I was a child in the Himalayan foothills, I’d lived in close proximity with apple trees. During the pandemic I upped my walking and hiking game, in Santa Fe and beyond, and found feral apple trees in unexpected spaces—between where people live and where nature and forests are circumscribed. I call these spaces the “micro-wild” and believe that we can reap significant benefits from spending time there.

 

I did fieldwork in micro-wilds where feral or historic apple trees persist—despite long neglect!—and discovered that these trees are living portals into science and history. My work led me to a transformative realization: An apple is more than simply a fruit. I’m blown away by the gravitas of the apple and its ability to take us places where we might otherwise never go.

 

I studied the roots of the apple—its birthplace in Kazakhstan—but the apple’s American journey, over four centuries, is equally compelling: I found myself tasting apples in the oldest private orchard in our country and also staying for a month at Monticello, studying the North and South Orchards where Thomas Jefferson grew a dizzying number of fruit varieties, including the storied Newtown Pippin.

 

Even in the 19th century, America grew an astounding number of apple varieties. But industrialization contributed to a tragic loss in apple biodiversity and we also lost our intimate connection to orchards. In this book, I distill the richness that biodiverse orchards once offered, and show that they still have the potential to be magical spaces.

 

Q: What do you think are some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about apples?

 

A: One could see the apple as simply a fruit to consume at lunch. That’s not a bad start. John Adams had an apple habit that I detail in the book. He wouldn’t dream of starting his day without a “gill” of hard cider. And he was personally involved in improving his compost pile. Once again, apples are a fascinating portal to culture.

 

Watch out, because apples can take over your life! Having all these different varieties on my counter turned into a community-making experience. I found myself discussing apple history with family, friends, and colleagues—every single person was genuinely interested by some aspect of the apple. No one refused a tasting.

 

Q: The writer Sy Montgomery called the book a “deeply meditative book in the vein of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Breaking Sweetgrass.” What do you think of that comparison?

 

A: Sy is an incredibly generous colleague and her quote reflects that she gets the essence of my work. When she read my last book, Conversations with Birds, she understood that my writing pushes boundaries.

 

I am of course honored by the comparison to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. Robin also pulls you in with a sensual connection to the land. My writing in this book is informed by intense fieldwork, so I hope that you can almost smell and taste apples alongside me.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m completing a new book, The Grassland Queen: A Love Story in the American Plains, which brings to life the community of grassland birds. Island Press will publish it in Fall 2026.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I recently reread the 20th anniversary edition of Old Filth, a novel by the wonderful British writer Jane Gardam.

 

The Light Between Apple Trees is set in the present but the past or history tend to unexpectedly show up—so it was fascinating to experience how the main character in Gardam’s book toggles between vivid (and unpleasant) memories of childhood and youth which are nevertheless preferable to the ebbing pulse of his present life.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb