Woudstra's literary essays, rooted in personal experience and travel, are long and loving looks into the mysterious heart of Africa. Her writings explore topics as diverse as volcanic eruptions and wild trees, African art and ritual, life in Rwanda, and turtle eggs in warm sand. "Like Annie Dillard, Annette Woudstra is a poet of observation. She carefully works experience and reflection to create sentences and scenes of exceptional clarity and grace." —Greg Hollingshead