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Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist who has spent much of her working life on mosses, plants most people step over. She was born in upstate New York in 1953, earned a PhD in plant ecology in 1983, and is an enrolled citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Her first book, Gathering Moss (2003), was published by a university press and won the John Burroughs Medal. Her second, Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), came from a small nonprofit publisher in Minneapolis, entered The New York Times paperback list in 2020, seven years after publication, and has sold more than two million copies. Both books set what science measures beside what Indigenous knowledge teaches. This guide covers her six key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 6 key books · 2003–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Robin Wall Kimmerer has published six books under her own name: Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), Gathering Moss (2003), The Democracy of Species (2021), Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults (2022), The Serviceberry (2024) and the picture book Bud Finds Her Gift (2025). Start with Braiding Sweetgrass; read on for the shorter way in, and the book that came first.
Where to Start with Robin Wall Kimmerer
If you want her defining book
→ Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) — essays on plants, science and Potawatomi teaching.
If you want something short first
→ The Serviceberry (2024) — about 130 pages on the gift economy.
If you want her scientific side
→ Gathering Moss (2003) — the moss book that came first.
If you are reading with a teenager
→ Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults (2022).
6 Robin Wall Kimmerer Books, in Order
Gathering Moss
Her first book, published by Oregon State University Press: a series of linked personal essays on the life histories of moss genera, from how mosses hold water to how they colonise bare rock, mixed with her own life and Potawatomi traditions. It has simple line drawings and runs to under 200 pages. It won the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing in 2005.
Braiding Sweetgrass
Essays arranged in five parts named after the stages of working sweetgrass, from “Planting Sweetgrass” to “Burning Sweetgrass”. It opens with the Skywoman creation story and moves between the lab, the field, her garden and her family, with chapters on strawberries, pecans, the Three Sisters and the grammar of animacy in Potawatomi. Published by Milkweed Editions, it first reached The New York Times paperback nonfiction list in 2020 and has sold more than two million copies. Richard Powers has said it helped shape The Overstory.
The Democracy of Species
A 96-page book in Penguin’s Green Ideas series, twenty short volumes of environmental writing published in the UK in August 2021. It draws on Braiding Sweetgrass and argues for a reciprocal, grateful relationship with the living earth, from harvesting wild leeks to the deer in the woods.
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults
An adaptation of Braiding Sweetgrass for younger readers, made by the children’s author Monique Gray Smith and published by Zest Books. It retells the original’s mix of Indigenous knowledge, plant science and personal story for a teenage audience.
The Serviceberry
A short book of 128 pages, grown out of a 2022 essay in Emergence Magazine, with line drawings by John Burgoyne. Kimmerer uses the serviceberry tree, which feeds birds and people with its summer fruit, to ask what an economy built on gifts and reciprocity rather than scarcity might look like, with examples as small as Little Free Libraries. Scribner published it on 19 November 2024 and it was an instant New York Times bestseller; she gave her advance to land protection and restoration.
Bud Finds Her Gift
Her first picture book, illustrated by Naoko Stoop. Bud feels left out while the adults around her are busy with work and screens, until her grandmother, Nokomis, teaches her to pay quiet attention to the natural world and to wonder what she might give back for its gifts.
In What Order to Read Robin Wall Kimmerer
Her books do not depend on each other, so publication order is a choice, not a rule. Read in order, though, they show one line of thought growing: Gathering Moss stays close to one group of plants, Braiding Sweetgrass widens it to a whole way of living with the land, and The Serviceberry applies the same idea of the gift to economics.
Most readers start with Braiding Sweetgrass and go back to Gathering Moss afterwards. If its 400 pages feel like too much, The Serviceberry covers the central argument in an evening. The Democracy of Species overlaps with Braiding Sweetgrass, so skip it if you have read the larger book.
A reading path
1. The Serviceberry (2024)
2. Braiding Sweetgrass (2013)
3. Gathering Moss (2003)
Everything Else Robin Wall Kimmerer Published
Beyond the 6 key books: 2 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
As editor and contributor
2
2 books · 2021–2023
- 2021Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relationsa five-volume anthology from the Center for Humans and Nature, co-edited with Gavin Van Horn and John Hausdoerffer
- 2023The Language of Treesan anthology edited by Katie Holten, with a contribution by Kimmerer
The years · 1953–2025
Quick facts about Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Known for
- She is known for writing about plants in a way that sets scientific knowledge beside Indigenous knowledge, above all in the long-running bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass.
- 1953
- Born in upstate New York
- 1983
- PhD in plant ecology, Wisconsin
- 2003
- Gathering Moss
- 2025
- TIME 100 Most Influential People
- Born
- 13 September 1953, upstate New York; raised in Ballston Lake
- Nation
- Enrolled citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation
- Education
- BS in botany, SUNY-ESF (1975); MS and PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison (1979, 1983)
- Works at
- SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry since 1993; founder of its Center for Native Peoples and the Environment
- Field
- Plant ecology, especially mosses, and traditional ecological knowledge
- Honours
- John Burroughs Medal (2005), MacArthur Fellowship (2022), National Humanities Medal (2023)
The red mark is 2013: Braiding Sweetgrass, the essay collection that made her widely read.
How Robin Wall Kimmerer Writes: Two Ways of Knowing
Kimmerer writes as a trained scientist and as a Potawatomi woman, and lets the two explain each other. A chapter can move from a field experiment with her students to a creation story to a family meal. In Braiding Sweetgrass she explains how Potawatomi grammar treats a tree or a stone as alive, then asks what would change if English did the same.
Her essays are short and built on one plant or one scene: picking strawberries, a pecan harvest, the pond behind her house that she spends years clearing. The botany is exact — Gathering Moss works through real moss genera and how they live — but the explanations come through stories, not jargon. She has named Loren Eiseley, Wendell Berry and Rachel Carson as early influences.
The idea that runs through all her books is reciprocity: the earth gives, and people owe something in return. The Serviceberry carries it into economics. For another scientist writing about the hidden lives of living things, see the books of Merlin Sheldrake.
Watch
Robin Wall Kimmerer on what nature teaches us about giving back
In an episode of the Museum of Science’s The Big Question, Kimmerer talks with Eva Cornman about Indigenous worldviews, the gift economy and reciprocity with nature.
Frequently asked questions about Robin Wall Kimmerer’s books
How many books has Robin Wall Kimmerer written?
Six under her own name, all on this page: Gathering Moss (2003), Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), The Democracy of Species (2021), Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults (2022), The Serviceberry (2024) and Bud Finds Her Gift (2025). She also co-edited the five-volume anthology Kinship (2021).
What are Robin Wall Kimmerer’s books in order?
Gathering Moss (2003), Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), The Democracy of Species (2021), Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults (2022), The Serviceberry (2024) and Bud Finds Her Gift (2025).
Where should I start with Robin Wall Kimmerer?
With Braiding Sweetgrass, her best-known book. If you want something shorter first, The Serviceberry is 128 pages and makes the same central argument about gifts and reciprocity.
What is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s most famous book?
Braiding Sweetgrass (2013). Published by Milkweed Editions, it reached The New York Times paperback nonfiction list in 2020 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide.
What is The Serviceberry about?
The serviceberry tree, which shares its fruit with birds and people, used as a model for an economy based on gifts and reciprocity rather than scarcity and competition. It began as a 2022 essay in Emergence Magazine and was published by Scribner in November 2024.
Is there a young adult version of Braiding Sweetgrass?
Yes. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults (2022), adapted by Monique Gray Smith and published by Zest Books. There is no film or television adaptation of her books; Kimmerer narrates the audiobook of Braiding Sweetgrass herself.
Is Robin Wall Kimmerer Native American?
Yes. She is an enrolled citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Her paternal grandfather, also Citizen Potawatomi, was sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.
What prizes has Robin Wall Kimmerer won?
The John Burroughs Medal for Gathering Moss (2005), the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award for Braiding Sweetgrass (2014), a MacArthur Fellowship (2022) and the 2023 National Humanities Medal, presented at the White House in October 2024. TIME named her one of the 100 most influential people of 2025.
Is Robin Wall Kimmerer still alive?
Yes. She was born on 13 September 1953 and teaches at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, where she founded the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
Footnotes
- Robin Wall Kimmerer — Wikipedia
- Braiding Sweetgrass — Wikipedia
- A decade of Braiding Sweetgrass — Milkweed Editions
- Kimmerer named 2022 MacArthur Fellow — SUNY-ESF
- President Biden awards 2022 and 2023 National Humanities Medals — NEH
- Review of The Serviceberry — Scientific American
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“We are bound in a covenant of reciprocity, a pact of mutual responsibility to sustain those who sustain us.”
— Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (2013)
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