Lucille W(ood) Trost (1938-)

Lucille W. Trost told SATA: "I joke that I was born with a pen and paper and taking notes. In truth, I've been writing stories, poems, articles, and essays for as long as I can recall. Such work is necessary for my mental balance as is sleep, and I can't imagine living without it.

"Over the years I've chosen subjects I know and love and the resulting books have been primarily natural history. For example, my award-winning book The Lives and Deaths of a Meadow focused on a place important to me during my Pennsylvania childhood. As I researched its history, I was fascinated by the rich environmental relationships that existed before my time.

"Bats, lizards, cottontail rabbits, and birds are all subjects of my published books and are animals I know well, like, and respect.

"My nineteen years as a counselor, teacher, and program director at Northwest Indian College gave me a deep appreciation for Native cultures and an understanding of their present-day issues and concerns. I used this understanding when I wrote Native Americans of the Plains.

"I've lived in many different places and from each have gained a richer understanding of the world about me. I was born on a farm in New York state and grew up first in New York City and then in the Pennsylvania countryside. I've lived in Florida, southern California, Idaho, Utah, New Zealand, and Australia. For the last twenty-two years I've lived on the Lummi Indian Reservation near Bellingham, WA. My friend John Brunson and I share our home with seven cats and two (mostly) Bernese mountain dogs. All were abandoned and some abused before they came to us."