Author · Journalist · Filmmaker · Teacher
Michael Ray Taylor is the author of several nonfiction books, including Hidden Nature: Wild Southern Caves, Cave Passages, Dark Life, Caves: Exploring Hidden Realms, and The Cat Manual (a humorous ebook). As a journalist, Mike has written about science and exploration for The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Houston Chronicle, Wired, Outside, Reader’s Digest, Audubon, and many other print and digital publications. A professor emeritus of communication at Henderson State University in Arkansas, he spent three decades teaching nonfiction and journalism. His personal enthusiasm for underground life has led him to collaborate with scientists from NASA and other research centers in various scientific studies.
Mike holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arkansas, where he studied under James Whitehead, Miller Williams, and William Harrison, and a masters in English with a creative writing emphasis from the University of South Carolina, where his mentors included James Dickey, William Price Fox, and William Emerson, Jr. He is a fellow of the National Speleological Society, the Cave Research Foundation, and The Explorers Club, and has received the NSS Spelean Arts and Letters Award as well as numerous writing fellowships and residencies. After retiring from teaching in 2022, he conducts occasional writing workshops while continuing to write articles, essays, and occasional books.
HIDDEN NATURE: Wild Southern Caves
Reed Environmental Writing Award Finalist, Southern Environmental Law Center, 2021
Hidden Nature tells the story of a vast underground wilderness that underlies the American South. Beyond describing the majesty of the region’s wild caves and the concurrent joys and dangers of exploring them, Michael Ray Taylor examines their scientific import, their relationship to clean water, and their uncertain future.
The book also examines the culture and history of caving in TAG (an acronym for the cave-rich region surrounding the intersection of Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia), from its heroic beginnings to recent discoveries. Hidden Nature is both a comprehensive work of well-researched fact and a personal narrative of the author’s long attraction to these caves and the people who dare enter their hidden chambers.
Praise for HIDDEN NATURE
“Michael Ray Taylor’s Hidden Nature is destined to become to wild Southern caves what Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods is to the Appalachian Trail: a book that reaches both beginners and experts, the merely curious and the passionately obsessed alike. Moving elegantly between personal experience, history, and science, it brings to vibrant life a secret world full of marvels and mysteries and, above all, beauty.”
— Margaret Renkl, author of Late Migrations
“Welcome to a whole new world you will not want to come up from. Thank goodness Michael Ray Taylor has the writing chops to describe it all beautifully, and exactly, and with the suspense and tension necessary to any great read.”
— Clyde Edgerton, author of Walking Across Egypt
and Papadaddy’s Book for New Fathers
“Part detective story, part memoir, part geological history—Michael Ray Taylor’s beautiful Hidden Nature is an unputdownable book. I expected bats and stalactites, sure—but his lifelong love and obsession dropped me beneath the earth I know, fascinated. For cavers and non-cavers, this is a must read, I promise.”
— George Singleton, author of You Want More: Selected Stories
“This is more a book about cavers than it is about caves: the ‘where and how and when’, certainly, but the eminently readable story concentrates on the many ‘who’ and ‘why’ that have been part of Taylor’s own journey through the sport. Think James Herriot or Bill Bryson.”
— Chris Howes in Descent
“If you’re willing to get on your belly and carefully crawl through tight, spare passages, wonders await.”
— Morgan Acuff in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
“In a career that has spanned nearly 30 years, Michael Ray Taylor has emerged as a Keats of caving, a veteran explorer of underground realms who writes with grace and restraint. His new book, Hidden Nature, probes the daunting and delicate ecosystems of caves; the passion that drives those who seek a larger connection with the world; and the enthralling reasons the South attracts locals as well as international travelers, thrill seekers and NASA scientists alike.”
— Hamilton Cain in the Chattanooga Times Free Press
“Taylor takes us on a journey like no other: if not to the center of the Earth, then at least along the frills of its crust, illuminating the dark corners of hidden spaces, unseen cathedrals.”
— Hamilton Cain, author of This Boy’s Faith, writing in Chapter 16
“This captivating and insightful book captures the essence of American caving and speleology, from the author’s beginnings as a caver to science, prominent explorers, the Golden Age of Cave Discovery, and more—lots more. I think it provides the best explanation yet of the why.”
— Bill Steele, author of Yochib, the River Cave
“A riveting account of caves and the unique individuals who explore them. With one-action filled adventure after another, the reader learns not only about caves but also much about the human spirit and the hearts and minds of cavers—some of the most dedicated and eclectic of explorers.”
— Chris Nicola, co-author of The Secret of Priest’s Grotto
2023 Update: Audiobook now available.
Read book excerpts at Chapter 16 and National Parks Magazine.
Listen to Mike’s interview with Scenic Roots or read those in Chapter 16 and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Order today from these sellers (or wherever you buy books). Scroll to bottom for a special offer for signed books directly from the author.
Signed copies, including free shipping within the U.S., are available for the following books at the listed prices via PayPal or Venmo: Cave Passages – hardback $25, paperback $15; Dark Life (hardback only) $25; Hidden Nature (paperback only) $20. Email author for payment details (PayPal or Venmo) at address below.
Contact: taylorm@hsu.edu or mike@michaelraytaylor.com