Layne Maheu biography

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Readalikes

Layne Maheu
Photo: Chris Smith

Layne Maheu

Layne Maheu Biography

Layne Maheu lives in Seattle with his son and makes his living as a carpenter. After taking a degree in literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara, he traveled to Alaska to work on fishing boats. Later, during the winters in Seattle he learned carpentry. He was born in Burlington, Vermont, and grew up on both coasts, in Massachusetts and California. His intense interest in crows grew out of an experience he had on the coast of Oregon on his honeymoon. He was already a bird watcher, but came upon a man who had been watching the same aerie of falcons for 13 years. Fascinated and deeply impressed by the wealth of knowledge this man had accrued by concentrating on one species of bird, he decided to do the same, eventually settling on the crow family. Layne Maheu is the author of Song of the Crow, a take on the tale of Noah's Ark from a crow's perspective.



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Interview

Layne Maheu talks about his frst book, "Song of the Crow", and how he came to know so much about crows!

How did you come up with the title Song of the Crow?
It’s hard to imagine a Crow’s voice as particularly musical, or all that pretty. But I suppose the crows themselves react favorably to their own calls. I chose the word ‘song’ for the irony, from our perspective, and also for how it would fit within the crow’s point of view. The narrator of the story is a crow.

Originally I had entitled the book Songs Long Gone. I imagine that crow’s might have provincial variations in their calls, and perhaps individual calls that they use to establish themselves. In the narrative, their homes, or aeries, are called ‘songscapes.’ And since there’s a flood that wipes everything out, well, the songs go with it.

Then, when the story was picked up by Unbridled Books, Fred Ramey, my editor there, thought that the title should show the unique perspective of the narrator, and so did I. So we kept ‘Song’ and added ‘Crow.’

What is your book about?
It’s an ancient, ancient story, and most likely one of the first stories you’ve ever heard, back in childhood. It’s the story of Noah’s Ark. But this time, it’s the story of The Flood told by a bird—-by ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Layne Maheu at BookBrowse
Song of the Crow jacket
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Readalikes

All the books below are recommended as readalikes for Layne Maheu but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose readalikes

  • Verlyn Klinkenborg

    Verlyn Klinkenborg

    Verlyn Klinkenborg comes from a family of Iowa farmers and is the author of Making Hay and The Last Fine Time. A member of the editorial board of the New York Times, he has written for The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Song of the Crow

    Try:
    Timothy
    by Verlyn Klinkenborg

  • Alexis Masters

    Alexis Masters

    Alexis Masters, lifelong mystic, scholar and kriya yoga practitioner, holds a bachelor of arts in transpersonal psychology from Antioch University, where she also pursued graduate work in feminist theology and comparative ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Song of the Crow

    Try:
    The Giuliana Legacy
    by Alexis Masters

We recommend 6 similar authors

View all 6 Readalikes

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