There are old growth forests where the trees have never known the buzz of a chainsaw, or the crush of booted feet. Places where the air is full of enchantment and honeyed sunlight.
This is not one of those forests.
This wood is closer to home. This wood is persistent, patient, growing up between fence posts and old tires. Sending out saplings and cockleburs over cracked pavement. It is a bottle littered, plastic bag choked scraggle of a wood, but a wood just the same.
At home in abandoned alleys, the Scraggle Wood pushes into the neglected areas of town taking back, reclaiming, rewilding. These pockets of wildness, of nature unkept, are the places where stories happen. They are the places that nourish wildlife, and if we let them, our wild selves. These Scraggle Woods call us back, and remind us of the magic of growing things.
book cover and interior page sample
Tales from the Scraggle Wood is a collection of nature and folk inspired art and stories. It's set to be published in March 2023. The book was successfully funded on A crowd funding kickstarter (Sept 22- Oct. 21st 2022) and is now available for pre-order.
This book is for anyone who loves folktales, the natural world and stories that reach for deeper truths. It's perfect for reading aloud to a child or grandchild, or curling up with for a quiet moment of inspiration.
The book will be a collection of original short stories, and field note style pages exploring the Scraggle Wood and its inhabitants. All of it will be accompanied by original paintings, and even a few sneak peeks into sketches from my sketchbook.
8”x10” full color book. This size will allow for the details of the illustrations to really shine and capture the imagination.
100 pages minimum. (possibly more depending on final formatting)
Printed with carbon offset
Softcover
Sneak Peak inside!
Field Notes Style two page spread example
Story book page example- 2 page spread
Writing Examples
EXERPT from The Tale of Tiny Green Moss Collector
Sweet Tiny Green Moss Collector had many seasons to her life. They cycled over and over, like repeated footsteps spiraling ever outward. Bit by bit, basket full by basket full, she sowed moss. Always knowing a little more was needed.
Search. Gather. Journey. Sow.
She lived in the wood where the moss grew thick and fallen leaves lay like years upon the ground...
EXCERPT from 'The Planting of the Oak'
Sonia found the sapling growing in their garden next to a cherry tomato vine. A spindly stem reached for the sky crowned by two vibrantly green oak leaves.
“Hello little tree,” she crooned. “Did you come from the alley?”
The alley slunk along behind their house. Between it, and the border of their backyard, was a weedy swath of burdock and elderberry bushes. Queen Anne’s lace and wild carrot flowered in mid-summer, while crickets called from the shade and tumbled old brick. The children often played there, building castles in the rubble and searching out snail shells.
I believe that wonder and enchantment are accessible to everyone, whether you live in an old growth forest or an urban scraggle of a wood.
I have spent much time among the tumbledown forest, the unintentional wood of grapevine and mulberry. I’ve heard the wisps of stories, gathered them close, and written them down. These are but a few of the tales from the Scraggle Wood.
Autumn Rozario Hall
Author, Painter, Dreamer.
I’m the artist and writer behind Tales from the Scraggle Wood. A grant from Iowa Rewild Bewild allowed me to write the stories. I believe that enchantment and wonder are just around the corner, if you dare to look. Many of these stories and paintings have long lived in my sketchbook and heart. I'm so glad to finally share them through this book. This is my second book.
Publications
2021 Wings, Thimble, Thorn, Illustrated Folktale
2021 Cultivation, The Hopper, Literary Journal
2021 When We are Lost, How We are Found, About Place Magazine, The Blackearth Institute
2021 Beneath the Waves Art Book collection, Art Order LLC
2018 Tiny Dragons Art Book collection, Art Order LLC
Autumn Rozario Hall is a Latina painter, dreamer, mother, and sharer of stories. She lives and works in Des Moines, Iowa. She is a recipient of two Community Art Grants from the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and is currently working within the rewilding movement, blending art with environmental outreach in the form of gallery shows, native plant workshops, and writing. Her paintings have been shown in art galleries throughout the U.S. including four solo shows. She is active in her local art community, participates in group shows, art fairs, and community art projects.
Through her work she seeks to share a sense of wonder and create art that inspires and uplifts. Her acrylic and mixed media paintings explore story and human connectivity to nature.
Additional art from the book.
