By Serena Broome
Growing up on a piedmont in Georgia, Mark Warren (ΦBK, University of Georgia) had an early appreciation for nature. An avid outdoorsman, he was the US National Champion in whitewater canoeing in 1998. He also practices the bow and arrow. He won the World Championship Longbow title in 1999. Intimately connected to nature, he has mustered the bravery to live in the wilderness, opening himself to experiences that some can only imagine but never dare.
Following a childhood dream after lightning struck his farmhouse, he spent two winters in a tipi—an experience he movingly details in his memoir, “Two Winters in a Tipi: My Search for the Soul of the Forest.” Seeking to share his invaluable knowledge with the community, Warren founded the Medicine Bow Wilderness School in the mountains of North Georgia, offering classes about wilderness skills. He also travels to schools, museums, and cultural centers to teach, offering a variety of programming about nature. In 1980, the National Wildlife Federation named him Georgia’s Conservation Educator of the Year. Warren demonstrates an intimate connection with nature in his own life, evident from his skills; he once was able to track a missing camper by knowing the scent of a fern when crushed.
Drawing inspiration from his experiences in nature, he has published eighteen books. Earning accolades for his work, Warren was named a 2019 Spur Award Finalist, winner of the 2020 Will Rogers Medallion Award, an “Editor’s Choice” by the Historical Novel Society, and a 2022 Georgia Author of the Year for his novel Song of the Horseman. His most recent book, for younger readers, is A Copperhead Summer.
Warren explained his decision to write A Copperhead Summer as follows:
“I was a summer camp counselor and director for over half a century, which makes this a very familiar ground on which to develop a story. I know first-hand the important influences that can be transferred from staff to camper concerning the most basic of our precious natural resources: like trees, water, wildlife, habitat, and stone. The Cherokees inspire me . . . no one will ever again know our Southern Appalachian forests as the pre-Colombian Cherokees did. Their intimacy with nature remains a vital lesson for all of us, and it is one of the main themes in this book series. I am excited about imparting that lesson to the reader.”
Warren shared the following comments about his book, offering readers a tantalizing hint about what is to come:
“As the book’s Cherokee character, Bobby Whitehorse, explains in the early chapters, there was a summer past when it seemed that everything that could go wrong at Camp Itawa . . . did go wrong. The incident that had kicked off that season of calamities was a venomous copperhead (snake) weaving its way through the roped off swimming area in the lake. When the book’s current camp season begins, the copperhead incident repeats like a déjà vu. Bobby has a gut feeling that they are about to enter another ‘copperhead summer.’ And right he is.”
The novel’s protagonist, Tyler Raintree, travels to Camp Itawa, nestled in the mountains of North Georgia. At the camp, he meets his counselor, Stoney St. Ney, and his mentor, Bobby Whitehorse, who is a Cherokee man. They teach him important skills about the forest, imparting knowledge about Native American ways of life. “The most important theme in the story concerns the special relationships that form between the main characters,” Warren explained. “Foremost is the ‘blood brotherhood’ between Cherokee maintenance man and mentor Bobby Whitehorse and Stoney St. Ney, the once troubled youth who became his star student and later a fellow staffer and peer at the camp.” Throughout the story, Raintree traverses the city and the forest. The tensions between these two settings are accentuated by the conflict that builds between his father in the city and his new mentors at Camp Itawa.
In an increasingly digitalized world, Warren’s life and novels urges his readers to reconnect to nature. He reminds us that there is much value to be gained from an intimate connection with nature. In A Copperhead Summer, as Tyler Raintree lives in the city and the rugged wilderness (each offering markedly different ways of life), Warren depicts how the city has become a simulacrum of life in which we have detached ourselves from nature. This philosophy suffuses his writing. Warren emphasizes that people should learn wilderness skills, reconnecting to our natural instincts. He believes nurturing wilderness skills will encourage people to engage in conservation efforts, which stands in stark contrast from the heartlessness demonstrated by people who exploit nature—they fail to understand, and therefore, tend to destroy nature.
As an author, composer, naturalist, and Western historian, he has immersed himself in many fields. Reflecting on the value of a liberal arts education, Warren shared the following statement:
“Liberal arts take a student beyond facts into the realm of philosophies, unique ideas, artistic interpretations, unexpected slants on living, and the many original abstractions that make up the personalities of the people we study, be they real or fictitious. My experience of expanding my knowledge of literature, especially, guided me headlong into inspiration and the industry required to consummate that inspiration by writing. For many decades, authors have lifted me up to places I never could have predicted. I owe them such a debt. Now that I am on the other side of that author/reader equation, I feel much gratitude. Already, I have received missives from readers that let me know I have joined that fraternity of writers who contribute something of worth from a distance. It is an honor to be a part of that tradition.”
Reflecting on the meaning of his Phi Beta Kappa membership, Warren said, “Whenever I am introduced at an author event and hear ‘Phi Beta Kappa’ spoken as one of my credentials, I always have the same private reaction in my mind; I remember how very hard I worked to master my studies in college. Looking back on it, I feel proud of my study ethic, and I am grateful that there is an academic society that considers that plight worthy of being celebrated.”
For more information on A Copperhead Summer, the first of Mark Warren’s young adult mystery series, please visit the Medicine Bow website. His books The Last Real Place and A Dance in the Devil’s Rain will be released in 2025 and 2026 respectively.
Serena Broome graduated early from UC Davis majoring in political science. She inducted into Phi Beta Kappa during her junior year. UC Davis is home to the Kappa of California chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
Photo at top courtesy of Mark Warren.