"This is a book about nature and human nature that will make you to laugh, think and self-reflect. It’s also a book that combines both the sublime economy of language and keen observational skills of Ariel Gordon, the poet, with the obsessions and appetite for adventure and discovery that drive her as a non-fiction writer. It’s the perfect blend, and Fungal is more than worth the time to read."

“Ariel Gordon is my favourite force of nature, a poet and essayist whose enthusiasm is a chief characteristic, matched only by her abundant generosity and community spirit. A spirit that extends to trees, as reflected in her previous essay collection Treed: Walking in Canada’s Urban Forest, and now mushrooms in her latest, Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest. Which is a book about seeing, and looking and finding, and making connections, and taking wild leaps. My favourite part of the book (or maybe the part that most resonated) was when Gordon makes a soup from foraged verpas and is torn between a fear of poisoning herself and her aversion to food waste (spoiler: the latter wins. And Ariel lives).”

"Gordon’s enthusiasm is infectious, and her ability to work across diverse topics admirable. The poems included here feel natural and fitting, not impositions. Her writing is perceptive and funny and thoughtful. Reading Fungal, it becomes easier and more interesting to pay more attention to the outer world and less to the inner. This transmission of the appreciation for nature from author to reader is a particularly high compliment to Gordon’s work."