Maria Mudd-Ruth

Maria Mudd Ruth (1960-) is the author of A Sideways Look at Clouds (Mountaineers Books, Fall 2017)--part natural history, part cloud physics, part memoir about her fascination with and study of clouds--about which she knew nothing prior to moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2006. Maria's story is told with humor and insight and will delight readers who have always wondered about the clouds...but were afraid to ask basic questions such as:

What are the clouds made of?

Why are they white?

How many kinds of clouds are there?

Why are their names so hard to pronounce and remember?

Clouds tell us about the weather--but what else can we learn from them?

Can you swim in a cloud?

Is it too late to start learning about the clouds if you're over 40?

Maria was born in Washington, D.C. and worked for National Geographic TRAVELER magazine for several years before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1990. She has published more than a dozen books on natural history topics including the critically acclaimed Rare Bird: Pursuing the Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet (Mountaineers Books reissue, 2013).

Maria lives in Olympia, Washington, with her husband and under cloudy skies 228+ days a year. To contact the author, please go to her website at www.mariaruthbooks.net or find her on Facebook at Maria Mudd Ruth Author.