Book event

Underground Lovers: Alison Pouliot in conversation with Nick Ritar

‘In the gloom of the forest floor, fallen branches are sheathed with fungal stripes of yellow and purple. But beneath the colourful surface, the fallen litter is alive with the clandestine workings of fungi.’

What can we learn from the lives of fungi? Underground Lovers brings us to our knees, magnifier in hand, to find out.

Fungi offer a way to imagine life differently. In Underground Lovers, Alison Pouliot reaches down to earth, and deeper, to dwell with fungal allies and aliens, discover how fungi hold forests together, and why humans are deeply entwined with these unruly renegades of the subterrain. Told through first-hand stories — from the Australian desert to Iceland’s glaciers to America’s Cascade Mountains — Alison Pouliot shares encounters with glowing ghost fungi and unearths the enigma of the lobster mushroom. Melding science and personal reflection, she explores the fungi that appear after fire, how fungi and climate change interact, the role of fungi in our ecosystems, and much more.

Alison Pouliot is an ecologist and environmental photographer with a focus on fungi. She is active in Australian and international fungal conservation, and her fungus forays, which she conducts across both hemispheres, attract a range of people from foragers and philosophers to rangers and traditional owners. She is the author of the wildly popular Wild Mushrooming and The Allure of Fungi.

Nick Ritar is a permaculture educator, designer, mushroom cultivator, beekeeper and gardener. He and his partner Kirsten Bradley are the authors of Milkwood: Real Skills for Down-to-Earth Living. 

Join Alison and Nick at the RACV Hotel.

This event is now sold out. To join the waiting list, please email events@fullersbookshop.com.au with your name, contact number and number of tickets required.