Katherine May

Katherine May is a writer, podcaster and speaker whose work touches on nature, spirituality, slow living and neurodivergence. Her hybrid memoir Wintering was a global bestseller, adapted as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week and shortlisted for the Porchlight and Barnes & Noble Book of the Year. Enchantment, her most recent title on her About page, became an instant New York Times bestseller. The Electricity of Every Living Thing, her memoir of a midlife autism diagnosis, was adapted as an audio drama by Audible.

Her other books include the novel The Whitstable High Tide Swimming Club, and she edited The Best, Most Awful Job, an anthology of essays about motherhood. Her journalism and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Observer, The Wall Street Journal, Time and Aeon.

She writes The Clearing, a newsletter and community on Substack. Her podcast of the same name takes guests to a clearing in the woods and invites them to describe their dream retreat. Earlier, she hosted The Wintering Sessions, a podcast that set out to learn from the times when life is frozen. She has also been a guest presenter for On Being's The Future of Hope series. She runs online retreats for people who need a break from it all.

Katherine lives by the sea in Whitstable, UK, with her husband, son and pets. She loves walking, sea-swimming and cooking enormous feasts.