Career
Whynott was born in Hyannis, Massachusetts, in 1950. He worked as a piano tuner while attending college and was the concert tuner at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center in Amherst, Massachusetts from 1976 to 1986. His first book, Following the Bloom, was begun as a graduate student when he worked for a summer as a Massachusetts apiary inspector and met a commercial migratory beekeeper named Andy Card. His second book, Giant Bluefin, tells the story of two years in the giant bluefin tuna fishery on Cape Cod and New England, from the vantage point of harpoon boats and focusing on the economics of the fishery, the Japanese markets, and federal government stock assessments. A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time tells the story of the construction of three sailboats at a boatyard in Brooklin, Maine owned by Joel White, the son of E. B. White, and accounts for when White was creating his final masterpiece, a 76-foot racing sloop. A Country Practice is the chronicle of two years at a veterinary clinic in Walpole, New Hampshire that examines the difficulties and pleasures of working at a rural, mixed animal practice. The Sugar Season chronicles the maple syrup industry in 2012, the warmest year in history at that time and tells the story of Bruce Bascom, one of the world's most successful maple syrup producers. The Sugar Season won the Green Book Festival Award for writing about the changing environment and was selected as one of the best books of 2014 by the Boston Globe.
According to Norman Sims, in True Stories , a history of literary journalism, Whynott is “an acknowledged master of the literary journalism of everyday life. Whynott spends a great deal of time with people, discovers their narratives, and then structures his stories so readers can identify with the characters." Whynott has taught writing and literature at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mount Holyoke College, the MFA Nonfiction Writing Program at Columbia University, and is Professor Emeritus in the Writing, Literature and Publishing Program at Emerson College.
In 2013, Whynott was a Fulbright Scholar at Universidad Nacional de Colombia US Studies Center in Bogota, Colombia, where he taught American narrative nonfiction writing and literary journalism.
Maple syrup is a syrup made from the sap of maple trees. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Maple trees are tapped by drilling holes into their trunks and collecting the sap, which is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup.
New England cuisine is an American cuisine which originated in the New England region of the United States, and traces its roots to traditional English cuisine and Native American cuisine of the Abenaki, Narragansett, Niantic, Wabanaki, Wampanoag, and other native peoples. It also includes influences from Irish, French, Italian, and Portuguese cuisine, among others. It is characterized by extensive use of potatoes, beans, dairy products and seafood, resulting from its historical reliance on its seaports and fishing industry. Corn, the major crop historically grown by Native American tribes in New England, continues to be grown in all New England states, primarily as sweet corn although flint corn is grown as well. It is traditionally used in hasty puddings, cornbreads and corn chowders.
A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna up to the Atlantic bluefin tuna, which averages 2 m (6.6 ft) and is believed to live up to 50 years.
John Tracy Kidder is an American writer of nonfiction books. He received the Pulitzer Prize for his The Soul of a New Machine (1981), about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation. He has received praise and awards for other works, including his biography of Paul Farmer, a physician and anthropologist, titled Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003).
Acer saccharum, the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the primary source of maple syrup and for its brightly colored fall foliage. It may also be known as "rock maple", "sugar tree", "birds-eye maple", "sweet maple", "curly maple", or "hard maple", particularly when referring to the wood.
Creative nonfiction is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as academic or technical writing or journalism, which are also rooted in accurate fact though not written to entertain on prose style. Many writers view creative nonfiction as overlapping with the essay.
An apiary is a location where beehives of honey bees are kept. Apiaries come in many sizes and can be rural or urban depending on the honey production operation. Furthermore, an apiary may refer to a hobbyist's hives or those used for commercial or educational usage. It can also be a wall-less, roofed structure, similar to a gazebo which houses hives, or an enclosed structure with an opening that directs the flight path of the bees.
Adam Hochschild is an American author, journalist, historian and lecturer. His best-known works include King Leopold's Ghost (1998), To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918 (2011), Bury the Chains (2005), The Mirror at Midnight (1990), The Unquiet Ghost (1994), and Spain in Our Hearts (2016).
Ted Conover is an American author and journalist who has been called a "master of immersion" and "master of experience-based narrative nonfiction." A graduate of Amherst College and a former Marshall Scholar, he is also a professor and past director of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University. He teaches graduate courses in the New York University Literary Reportage concentration, as well as undergraduate courses on the "journalism of empathy" and undercover reporting.
Alexander Chee is an American fiction writer, poet, journalist and reviewer.
Moses Quinby was an American beekeeper from the State of New York. He is remembered as the father of practical beekeeping and the father of commercial beekeeping in America. He is best known as the inventor of the bee smoker with bellows. He was the author of numerous articles and several books on beekeeping.
A sugar shack, also known as sap house, sugar house, sugar shanty or sugar cabin is an establishment, primarily found in Eastern Canada and northern New England. Sugar shacks are small cabins or groups of cabins where sap collected from maple trees is boiled into maple syrup. They are often found on the same territory as the sugar bush, which is intended for cultivation and production of maple syrup by way of craftsmanship.
The Pacific bluefin tuna is a predatory species of tuna found widely in the northern Pacific Ocean, but it is migratory and also recorded as a visitor to the south Pacific.
The Sushi Economy by Sasha Issenberg is a nonfiction book about sushi and globalization. The Sushi Economy uses the booming business, culture, and cuisine of raw fish to examine how the integration of local economies through trade works in practice. The book takes the form of a global travelogue ranging from Atlantic bluefin tuna fishermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Japan's Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, to tuna pirates in the Mediterranean, to an Austin, Texas sushi bar, to the global restaurant empire of Nobu Matsuhisa and the tuna ranchers of Port Lincoln, South Australia. The book synthesized widely available information on the global impact of Japan's appetite for seafood.
Isabel Wilkerson is an American journalist and the author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010) and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020). She is the first woman of African-American heritage to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism.
Bascom Maple Farms, Inc., is a privately held company based at the Bascom Maple Farm in Acworth, New Hampshire, with a mailing address of Alstead, New Hampshire. Officers of the company include President Bruce Bascom and Vice-Presidents David Bascom and Kevin Bascom.
The Apiary Laboratory, more often referred to as the Apiary, is a research laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Originally built for the study of honey bees and apiculture, today it is primarily used to study native pollinator species and the chemicals and pathogens impacting their populations. This academic building is unique in that it is credited as being the first in the United States to be erected exclusively for the teaching of beekeeping.
Nan Levinson is an American writer, journalist and teacher. Her writing focuses on civil and human rights, military culture, the arts, and communication technology. Her books include War Is Not a Game: The New Antiwar Soldiers and the Movement They Built and Outspoken: Free Speech Stories. Levinson was the first U.S. correspondent for the Index on Censorship.
