This section of the website has been set up as a “catch-all” to document some of the interesting work that Ishmael readers are doing. For instance, there are a number of readers who have written books – not necessarily “inspired” by DQ but often citing him or Ishmael. So we’ve added them to this page.

We’re not “endorsing” anyone here, we can’t do that! But we can appreciate people who have read Ishmael and other Daniel Quinn books, have taken the message to heart and carried it forward in their lives.

 Ishmael readers are out there, doing things! Enjoy this page, and if you feel that you should be on it, contact us and tell us why.

Living While Human by Arwinder Kaur - Ishmael Daniel Quinn

Living While Human

“If you are familiar with the works of Daniel Quinn, his influence is apparent in my book. If not, I hope you find my writing of interest. I welcome questions you may have or ideas you wish to share. One planet. One people.”

– Arwinder Kaur, author of Living While Human

How do we as humans navigate our lives in the complex world we have created? With the high speed in which we are bombarded with images, messages and conflicting ideas, how do we figure out how to live in the world without destroying it and ourselves? Why are we the only species that seems to be struggling to live truly healthy lives?

Masses of us are suffering with feelings of loneliness and emptiness, killing ourselves and each other despite our sense of superiority over all other species. What makes us live the way we do? How do we live better lives with a deeper connection to ourselves, others and the Earth? The answers are not locked away in a secret vault. In fact, they are much closer and simpler than you might realize, but need to know.

About Arwinder Kaur
I have dedicated my life to giving to those around me. After attending SFU, I became a social worker specializing in the area of child welfare for almost 30 years. I hope that, in sharing my writing, others too may find it a comfort to have a compass to help navigate their lives as humans on this planet.

I believe in the power of words. I have come full circle. After reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn in 1994, I was propelled into ecological activism and writing Living While Human. I hope my words might inspire others in some manner, to act for the protection of the natural world.

Arwinder Kaur website
Purchase book on Barnes & Noble
Arwinder’s bio on the Canadian Authors website

Living While Human by Arwinder Kaur is a micro-autobiography and a call for embracing sustainable life choices and preserving our natural world.

The book starts with a glimpse of the early stages of Arwinder’s parents’ life in Canada as immigrants from India who found their social life less receptive than their homeland.

Additionally, we follow Arwinder’s rich, multicultural experiences in the first few decades as she traveled from Canada to England and India. Arwinder also narrates her living in Vancouver, becoming a social worker, and rejecting mainstream living.

The other half of the book reveals why humans are not as smart as we think compared to other animals and how a simple, accessible answer solves many of the problems we have brought on ourselves and the world around us. I was hooked from the first page and kept repeating how much I loved the book while reading it.

The author’s Western view of India is intriguing, as it contains some accurate, intelligent deductions about living simply and appreciating one’s privileges. One of the many captivating stories from Arwinder’s travels is about a woman who climbs through a moving train’s window to sell some goods.

I wholeheartedly support the author’s essays about indigenous lifestyles, nature preservation, population control, the government, and other discussed topics. She shares her concern for the world with concise, thought-provoking words and a burning passion for healing our dying world actively.

Quotes from Living While Human should be framed and placed in schools, offices, and even on billboards worldwide to help us fully understand the need to  embrace sustainable, healthy living.

Tellwell Review – Foluso Falaye for Readers’ Favorite


“Written in first person, the book is a “micro-autobiography” of a South Asian family that migrated to Canada and the trials and tribulations that they faced before settling down and making Canada their home.

It is a candid description written in simple language, full of incidents of learning lessons that reflect on the writer’s principles and values.

A flowing style that is simple, yet captivating to keep the reader glued to the book. The author’s voice comes out loud and clear. It is coherent and full of practical wisdom for sharing with the reader.

The narrative is well timed and smooth flowing. Very informal style with a personal touch which is endearing to the reader. The main theme and the secondary themes are well knitted into a homogeneous pattern.

The author talks in detail about her experience as a social worker, seeing a lot of child abuse leading to trauma, especially in Indigenous children. This leads her to delve into the ugly spots of our society that need to be dealt with immediately. Later on she takes on the role of an environmentalist and an activist asking everyone to join her in saving the earth, its trees and flora and fauna.

Attractive book cover with a glossy image that stands out.

A book worth reading. Quite thought provoking and reflecting the resiliency shown by the writer in diverse situations”.

– Whistler Independent Book Awards

The Greatest Creature of All by Bradly Boe - Ishmael, Daniel Quinn

The Greatest Creature of All

After reading Ishmael almost 30 years ago, I began hearing what Daniel Quinn referred to as the hum of Mother Culture everywhere. And as a parent, I could see how it was shaping our children, through school, on television, and even in children’s books. How were we supposed to give our kids a new story to enact in the midst of so much cultural reinforcement of the old story?

Those of us with changed minds, it seemed to me, needed to get in the game too and create resources for parents wanting to raise kids who question the story Mother Culture was feeding them. So after mulling it over a long time, I finally decided to take my own advice and write a children’s book myself. I chose to write something that struck at the very root of the problem as I saw it, namely, our cultural assumption that the world belongs to man.

I hope The Greatest Creature of All does this in an easy to understand and entertaining way and will help parents in laying the foundation for a different understanding of the world and our place in it.

– Bradley Boe

About Bradley Boe

Brad is a retired television art director with a degree in art and psychology whose main goal in life has been to live a simple, sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. It’s been a long, complex journey that continues to this day. He and his wife and extended family live and work on a small homestead in northwest Missouri.

He wrote The Greatest Creature of All because he believes the path to a better world needs to be grounded in the stories we tell our children. And foundational to those stories is an understanding of our true place in this world. He hopes perhaps this book might contribute a little bit to that understanding.

Forward from The Greatest Creature of All

the-greatest-creature-of-all-forward-bradley-boe

A wise old owl with a mysterious question sends five forest companions on a journey leading to an incredible discovery that will forever change the way they see the world.

If you’re looking for a delightful fable that explores our place in the world and in the web of life, this is it. The Greatest Creature of All examines this in an amusing and richly illustrated way, doing so in a manner that also encourages cooperative problem solving. Essentially, this is the perfect book for teaching children about our relationships with our animal relatives and with each other by helping them see through the eyes of those others. Take your kids on this journey of discovery too.

“I want you to know I loved it! It’s a really good and important book.” – Derrick Jensen, award winning author, speaker and environmental activist.

Purchase book on Amazon

One of Our Gorillas is Missing by Burt Kempner - Ishmael Daniel Quinn

Multiple Books by Burt Kempner

“The headmaster in my five-book ‘School of Animal Magic’ series is a silverback gorilla named Professor Quinn. It’s the only name I ever considered, a tribute to a writer and thinker I hold in the highest esteem. When I finished the last page of Ishmael I knew I was not the same person I had been before I started it. That’s rare and special and was repeated one Daniel Quinn book after another.”

– Burt Kempner, author of many wonderful children’s books

Spurred by his love for inspiring young people, Burt started writing children’s books in 2015. Larry the Lazy Blue Whale was his first published book, followed by Monty the Movie Star Moose, The Five Fierce Tigers of Rosa Martinez and the School of Animal Magic Adventure Series: Maisha the Educated Elephant, Dolphins in Distress, The Salmon Who Wanted to Run, The Purple Wave and One of Our Gorillas is Missing!

About Burt Kempner
“I was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved to Philadelphia when I was four years old. I was not consulted in the matter. I knew from childhood that I wanted to be a writer. I love playing with words, coming up with new combinations and puzzles.

Why did I start writing children’s books? It was because I wasn’t seeing the books I had wanted to read as a kid.

In my books, you won’t be a bit surprised to see an elephant bounce off a trampoline or a sleepy blue whale nearly be the cause of war. That’s just the way things are in a Mild Wild Media book.”

– Burt Kempner

Writer-Producer Burt Kempner has worked professionally in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Florida. His work has won numerous major awards, and has been seen by groups ranging in size from a national television audience in the United States to a half-dozen Maori chieftains in New Zealand.

Burt Kempner website
Click here for links to purchase Burt’s books

Don Reardon Raven's Gift - Ishmael Daniel Quinn

The Raven’s Gift

In 2nd grade the kids in our small one room school house took a field trip to visit the abandoned houses across the river from our village. The houses appeared as if the occupants left in a hurry, the contents inside undisturbed. The elders told us that ghosts would haunt those who took anything from inside one of the homes. 

This was my first glimpse into the devastation wrought by epidemics in Alaska. From that day forward I would be infected with a love for the history, cultures, and stories of this vast landscape that is Alaska.

About Dan Reardon

“I grew up on the tundra and rivers of southwest Alaska. My experience and adventures in Alaska have shaped both my writing and my love and concern for humanity and our planet. I’m a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, screenwriter, novelist, and – – – when the mood hits, a tundra philosopher-poet.”

– Dan Reardon

Purchase the book on Good Books Bad Coffee
Purchase the book on Amazon

the-threefold-struggle-andrew-frederick-smith-ishmael-daniel-quinn

The Threefold Struggle
Pursuing Ecological, Social, and Personal Wellbeing in the Spirit of Daniel Quinn

Drawing on the thought of novelist and cultural critic Daniel Quinn, argues it is not too late to free ourselves from a culture in which we are compelled to destroy the world, one another, and even ourselves.

We members of settler colonial culture – the latest form of what novelist and cultural critic Daniel Quinn calls Taker culture – are constrained by myriad institutions that leave us with little choice but to engage in practices that are profoundly damaging to the planet, to others, and to ourselves.

Our path to living otherwise, Andrew Frederick Smith argues, lies in the threefold struggle, which is inspired by Quinn’s focus on the interweaving roots of ecological, social, and personal wellbeing.

These three forms of wellbeing are co-implicated. We cannot enjoy one without equally enjoying the others; they are a package deal. As such, what works for people individually and collectively works for the planet, and vice versa. Reclaiming our lives and revitalizing our human and more-than-human communities are salient acts of resistance against Taker culture. They offer means of escape from our cultural captivity and an opportunity for full-spectrum wellbeing.

– Suny Press

About Andrew Frederick Smith

Andrew attests that his immersion in Daniel’s writings not only transformed his vision but literally saved his life.

Associate Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. Specializations: Environmental Philosophy/Humanities, Food Justice & Climate Justice, Social & Political Philosophy (esp. Decolonization)

Andrew Frederick Smith website
Purchase book on Suny Press
Amazon Kindle

Note: a painting by Daniel Quinn is the cover for the book!

“If we follow Angela Davis’ prescription that ‘radical’ simply means ‘grasping things at the roots,’ then this work helps us do that by providing a deep critique of what we have been taught to uncritically accept as good in the development of civilization. The Threefold Struggle will appeal to anyone who takes personally the idea that the world can be saved not by trying to moderate our behavior but by making changes that are as dramatic as a religious conversion.”

– Tadd Ruetenik, author of The Demons of William James: Religious Pragmatism Explores Unusual Mental States

john-hess-a-perfectly-ordinary-paradise

A Perfectly Ordinary Paradise: An Intimate view of life on Brawley Creek

John Hess has written a book about the extraordinary lives of ordinary creatures. Centered around the natural life along a small section of land in Missouri, on a tiny tributary that eventually drains into the Missouri River, it explores is a synthesis of science and aesthetics – reason and emotion – and the power of that combination to reintroduce us to a world from which we have become estranged.

Intended as a bookend for his earlier work, The Galápagos: Exploring Darwin’s Tapestry, John Hess uses his intimate photography of Brawley Creek to illustrate that life in everyone’s back yard is complex and beautiful. Written to be enjoyed at many levels, Hess’s lush photographs introduce the reader to the beautiful colors and elegant architectures of the residents of Brawley Creek.

About John Hess
John Hess is Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, where during his 30-year career he taught ecology, ornithology, evolutionary biology, genetics, as well an occasional advanced photography class in the Department of Graphics.

Purchase the book on Amazon

How to Survive the Apocalypse

How to Survive the Apocalypse

I was introduced to the wonderful world of Ishmael when my fiancée insisted I read Ishmael, My Ishmael and The Story of B.

After having digested B, I immediately I went to work on a substack channel, in which I publish a fortnightly essay inspired by Daniel Quinn’s work, taking a look at our current political and social problems and how we can find a way through.

My background is in politics (I’ve worked in both the European and UK parliaments as a political advisor), and in journalism, with stints at both Breitbart and the Jerusalem Post as a journalist and editor.

– Donna Rachel Edmunds

Click here for How to Survive the Apocalypse on substack

leaver.taker artwork at Blue Spiral Gallery - Ishmael Daniel Quinn

ishmaelbookart

One of our favorite artists, lshmaelbookart, is featuring his Ishmael inspired art at Blue Spiral Gallery in Asheville, NC. Since 1999 he has been spreading the word about Ishmael through his graffiti and art. You can see more of his work on our Inspired page.

About
“7 years after reading Ishmael I sent Daniel Quinn a package of photos of my ishmael related graffiti and art. Daniel responded with enthusiasm. I told Daniel that I was not trying to impress him. More I wanted him to know that I took the Ishmael book as my truth and I was dedicating my art to leading people to read Ishmael.

I met Daniel twice but I never told him I was the artist that sent him the photos. For years I corresponded with Quinn through email. We discussed business ideas and science mostly. After 23 years of creating ishmael inspired work I truly feel it has been an adventure of the mind and spirit.”

– ishmaelbookart

Blue Spiral Gallery
artist website
artist instagram

More Ishmael Readers Doing Things Coming Soon!