Self-Portrait with Turtles : A Memoir

A renowned artist, author, and naturalist, David M. Carroll is exceptionally skilled at capturing nature on the page. In Self-Portrait with Turtles, he reflects on his own life, recounting the crucial moments that shaped his passions and abilities. Beginning with his first sighting of a wild turtle at age eight, Carroll describes his lifelong fascination with swamps and the creatures that inhabit them. He also traces his evolution as an artist, from the words of encouragement he received in high school to his college days in Boston to his life with his wife and family. Self-Portrait with Turtles is a remarkable memoir, a marvelous and exhilarating account of a life well lived.

David M. Carroll is the author of The Year of the Turtle, Trout Reflections, and Swampwalker’s Journal, which won the John Burroughs Medal, the highest award for nature writers.

A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and of Tufts University, he has received an honorary doctorate from the University of New Hampshire and an Environmental Merit Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for his work on wetlands. In 2006 he was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, given to "to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations." He lives in New Hampshire.