About
William Homestead is the author of An Ecology of Communication: Response and Responsibility in an Age of Ecocrisis and Not Till We Are Lost: Thoreau, Education, and Climate Crisis, which was a finalist for the 2025 Vermont Book Award in Creative Nonfiction. He is the editor of the anthology, The Active Soul: Emerson and Thoreau on Reform and Civil Disobedience. The Active Soul includes his 36-page introduction, “From Abolitionism to Climate Justice.”
Together, these works call for a renewed moral and spiritual vision rooted in Transcendentalist principles: listening deeply, living deliberately, and acting courageously in the face of crisis. They also argue that our personal relationships are embedded within what Thoreau called “the infinite extent of our relations” and love as a larger force.
Homestead had a long association with the Ometeca Institute, an education nonprofit devoted to the integration of the sciences and the humanities and dialogue among scholars from diverse countries. His work with Ometeca, along with his interdisciplinary degrees (MFA in Creative Writing, MS in Environmental Studies, MA in Communication Studies) and study with a spiritual teacher, informs his writing.
Homestead has taught courses on interpersonal relationships, religion and philosophy, literature, environmental ethics, and popular culture for over twenty-five years. His favorite courses to teach are Interpersonal Communication and The Voice of Nature. He is a longtime member of the Thoreau Society and International Environmental Communication Association. He lives in Vermont, loves sports, and spends much time walking in the woods with his dog, Snoopy, who was named by his three children.