“Powerful, Poised, Poetic.”

"Walk in the woods with me."

That's the invitation award-winning author Lore Ferguson Wilbert extends to readers in The Understory.

On this journey, Wilbert shares her story of alienation and disorientation after years of religious and political unrest in the evangelical church. In doing so, she looks to an unlikely place—the forest—to learn how to live and even thrive when everything seems to be falling apart. What can we learn from eroding soil, the decomposition process, the time it takes to grow lichen, the beauty of fiddlehead ferns, the regeneration of self-sowing seeds, and walking through the mud? Here, among the understory of the forest, Wilbert discovers rich metaphors for living a rooted and flourishing life within the complex ecosystems of our world. Her tenderness and honesty will help readers grieve, remember, hope, and press on with resilience.

Preordered? Get your bonuses right now!

When you preorder The Understory you will get:

  • Immediate access to the first two chapters of The Understory

  • Digital download for a large format I AM HERE print by artist Stephen Crotts

  • First in line invitation to The Understory private launch group (coming soon!) where we will have weekly Zooms, extra gifts, giveaways, and other fun things.

  • “Both timeless and timely, this book is one I didn’t know I was waiting for...her best and most compelling work yet.”

    Emily P. Freeman, author of The Next Right Thing and How to Walk into a Room

  • “Part Wendell Berry, part Eugene Peterson, and part Madeleine L’Engle. The result is sheer magic."

    A. J. Swoboda, associate professor, Bushnell University; author of After Doubt

  • “Powerful, poised, poetic. Lore Ferguson Wilbert preaches like a prophet and writes like a friend."

    Rachel Marie Kang, author of Let There Be Art and The Matter of Little Losses

  • "Wilbert offers us a rare gift: raw honesty devoid of cynicism. This is the book the church needs for this moment in history."

    Amanda Held Opelt, author of Holy Unhappiness and A Hole in the World

  • "Rare and beautiful."

    Aundi Kolber, MA, LPC, therapist; author of Try Softer and Strong Like Water

  • "Remarkably acute and resonant account."

    Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

  • "Concerned with the radical act of being."

    Drew Jackson, poet and author of God Speaks through Wombs and Touch the Earth

In the midst of moving across the country, the pandemic, the political and religious landscape of the last few years, I found myself floundering for some stable footing and struggling to find it.

Maybe you’ve found yourself in a similar place. Reeling from the fall of institutions and leaders, churches and pastors, feeling incapable of how to be a good neighbor when there’s so much vitriol around.

I found my footing again in the nearby forest, amongst the big trees and mossy carpets. I found it with unlikely friends and in unlikely ways. And I’d like to invite you to walk with me through the complexity of land ownership, the intricacies of regeneration and what happens to our bodies when we are buried, and the time it takes to regrow what has fallen down around us.

Hi, I’m Lore (it’s pronounced with a long e),