Loree Griffin Burns starts most mornings with a haiku. Reading or crafting the three-line poems with just 17 syllables verges on spiritual practice for the biochemist-turned-author.
“It forces me to sit down, be quiet and think about how to describe a single moment in very spare, but completely accurate language, in a way that feels poetic,” she said. “It sets the tone for my real job, which is doing that same thing in a longer form.”
Burns writes science books for children. Award-winning titles include: Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam and the Science of Ocean Motion; The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe;and Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of Scientific Discovery from Your Own Backyard.
Photo credit: Loree Griffin Burns.