Bee-ing in Harmony

New book inspired by beekeeping revels in rewilding—everything.

Updated May 19, 2026 | Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano

When I came across Susan Cormier's new book Dead Bees Still Sting , I was expecting a memoir of beekeeping. It is so much more!

In the tradition of Henry Beston's Outermost House , Cormier gives us a beautiful rite of passage in book form. With the fine care of a poet and the nuanced wisdom of an ecologist living in harmony with—rather than domination of—the natural world, her meditation is transformative.

And as with Christina Rivera's My Oceans , Dead Bees Still Sting shines light into how we can "be" (in this case, "bee"!) in right relationship with our rapidly changing planet.

Rachel Clark: You have a way of writing about bees that sometimes seems more bee than human. Could you tell us how you arrived at this capacity?

Susan Cormier: Our cognitive development is affected by the experiences and pastimes of our childhood and teen years. I started writing poetry and songs as a child; as a result, my approach to the use of words is rooted in music and literary devices such as imagery, metaphor, and sound. Most animals including bees aren't "talkers" that communicate in spoken words; they’re dancers, singers, musicians, and dramatic theatrical actors.

The repeating metaphor of a bee colony behaving like a galaxy was said to me by a friend’s six-year-old child. Children have, in many ways, so much more insight than us adults.

RC: Your writing about living a pastoral life in today's tumultuous world shines with a deep kind of comfort, even solace. Can you tell me where that comes from for you?

SC: There’s a lot of fear , anger , and resentment in the world these days, regarding both political situations and the ecological effect human industry has had on the world. We need to forgive instead of festering in anxiety .

Forgiveness is not ignoring the negative and pretending something hasn’t happened; it’s accepting that this is the way things are now. With that acceptance comes a calm clarity that allows for insight and action. We cannot change the past, but we can set a plan and choose our actions going forward.

RC: In the chapter titled "Burying the Bones", you braid different experiences of death and burial, including those of indigenous children at forced residential schools. Your tender care with death of animals in rural life mirrors something deeper. What inspired you to explore death in this way?

SC: In my teens, I was severely injured in a car accident and was lucky to survive. This experience profoundly shifted my views on mortality and the fragility of life.

Like other biological realities such as farting and bodily fluids, death is a feared and avoided taboo in Western culture. We are alarmed by it, or laugh about it, but we rarely look directly at it. Those who have dealt with death in an intimately hands-on manner—held a close family member’s hand as they passed, been involved in a fatal incident, made decisions about ailing family pets , or touched their own potential death—are often quickly relieved of such a taboo. Death as a concept can be frightening, but in reality it is far more complex, more of an omnipotent deity than a terrifying demon.

We cannot do anything to prepare for or defend ourselves against a concept or idea: It is something that exists only in our heads. The lack of agency triggers negative emotions and perpetuates our discomfort. But once you accept that something is real, true, and unavoidable, you can make decisions and take action. Acceptance is empowering.

RC: Do you think our culture’s approach to death is woven with our impacts on Earth?

SC: The Western culture approach to the concepts of life and death has historically been based in the Judeo-Christian idea that humans are separate from all other life forms, and one’s life is a test or qualifying trial that determines a post-mortem/future state of being. As our scientific knowledge grows and supplements or replaces these old ideas, we are becoming increasingly aware of the similarities and connections between us and other living things, including the cyclical nature of life and death and the relationships between various species. Over the past century, the concern we have for our own lives is extending to consideration of our effects on the physical world, not just as investment in our own future but also as respect for other species and the ecology as entities unto themselves.

RC: What gifts do you hope Dead Bees Still Sting offers to readers?

SC: My book is intended to offer readers three things:

A new perspective on, or an antidote to, the fears and anxieties about the human species’ effects on the earth. Humans are not evil invading aliens; we are a part of this ecology, and given our knowledge of it, we can choose our behaviors within it.
A piecemeal education on the quirks and realities of rural life. The majority of our population lives in urban centers, disconnected from nature’s brutal and beautiful glory, and thus the idea of rural living tends to be overly romanticized and sterilized into trendy concepts such as "the tradwife" and "homesteading." Actual agriculture is quite a far cry from such fairy tales.
Entertainment. Ultimately, Dead Bees Still Sting is a collection of stories. Everyone loves a good story! Animals and plants can be both surprising and surprisingly silly, while we two-legged meat creatures can often only gawk and flounder and try to figure it all out. I've tried to capture the moments of whimsy, weirdness, and profundity that I've encountered while living in the urban-wildland interface.

RC: Thank you for joining us, Susan.

In conversation with Susan Cormier . Susan is a spoken word artist, event producer, beekeeper, and caretaker of assorted small critters. Her lyrical essay “Advice to a New Beekeeper” won the CBC Nonfiction Prize and her writing has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies. Cormier produces Vancouver Story Slam, Canada's longest-running live indie storytelling competition.

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Rachel Clark, M.S., is a science writer and biologist who's reported on the impacts of climate heating, health, and pandemic preparedness.

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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.