Held: Essays in Belonging

by Kathryn Nuernberger

From award-winning author Kathryn Nuernberger, Held is a collection of essays about mutualisms, mutual aid, and ways of being together in a time of climate crisis.

Here is a collection about living in and with the consequences of terrible mistakes—Held contemplates our collective experiences of loss in an age of climate change and mass extinctions, as well as more personal tragedies. Each essay in this book describes a remarkable instance of symbiotic bobtail squid host glow-in-the-dark bacteria behind their eyes so they can camouflage with moonlight on the water; there is a surprisingly erotic encounter between ants and a rove beetle; beavers and willow trees together turn deserts to verdant wetlands; and many more. To read Held is to be reminded of one’s humanity and of our interconnectedness with the world that surrounds us.

Genres: Essays

204 pages, Paperback

Published November 11, 2025

Reviews

[Brandon Sheaffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes when you re-read something you liked you recognize a piece of your own writing in it, because, it turns out, it influenced you, even if you don’t remember it doing so. Such is the case with Kate Nuernberger’s stories about “mutualism” she collected to assemble her book. It’s that word: “collect.” I used it recently in an essay I’m struggling to write. I collect people’s stories they tell me. One recent one: John’s parents walked for over a year to escape Cambodia before he was born. I wrote that I collect stories, and it did not occur to me until now where I got the idea. It’s from this book. Her ideas made a home in my subconscious thoughts.

Such good writing can also remind you of things long forgotten. For class, I wrote a pastiche of “Lines About the Moon,” one of the essays in her book. I read about how horseshoe crabs used to be so abundant that the salt marshes were thick with their eggs, and that inside each egg was a gelatinous yellow shelled being making itself from shadows like a face on the moon” (150). I thought about the shadows trees cast onto the snow under the full moon, and how I used to celebrate full moon nights with my closest friends making fresh tracks on our snowboards through powder illuminated by snowlight. It’s that word: “snowlight.” It came to me from somewhere in my subconscious, inspired by these essays, which somehow gave me permission to write it. It’s the light that reflects off the surface of the snow under the full moon. Her essays are each little glowing lights that illuminate obscure creatures and plants I’ve never considered much.

[Sandra Del Rio · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I had to saw my scalpel through to the center, where a maggot slept, translucent and curled head to tail. I touched the creature with the tip of my knife to see if it would move and instead it burst a pussy ooze... how I wish I hadn't killed that larva. All he had was being alive and now he is not."

Despite the immense loss and grief and devastation that pulsed throughout the book, I felt weirdly comforted by Kate's essays. I loved so much of this--in this moment here in the Twin Cities where everything I do feels so wrong, reading this book was the only thing that made me feel not-wrong. As a friend of mine said, I literally felt held by these essays.

A book about relationships, symbiotic mutualisms, what it means to be in relation to each other, to be a creature that relies on other creatures, to be a creature that is relied upon....

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

In these essays, most 1-2 pages long, Nuernberger weaves data about the natural world, like how grasshoppers Incredible Hulk into locusts when environmental conditions force them to fight for survival, and memories from lived experiences. Nuernberger does not stretch for metaphors but instead instead leaves it up to the reader to find these threads ourselves. In this way I found my own stories and impressions blended in as I moved through this book.

I so appreciated the work and am grateful for the opportunity to read it. Now I look forward to getting caught up in what ever comes next.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an impulse purchase - one I'm very glad I made. There's just so much going on in this book. Trust me, you'll just have to read it and see for yourself!