
Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless
What Fungi Taught Me About Nourishment, Poison, Ecology, Hidden Histories, Zombies, and Black Survival
Maria Pinto(Author)
The University of North Carolina Press
Published on 28. October 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-4696-8979-1 (ISBN)
Description
Naturalist, forager, and educator Maria Pinto offers a stunning debut book that uncovers strange and beautiful fungal connections between the natural and human worlds. She mingles reportage, research, memoir, and nature writing, touching on topics that range from Black farmers' domestication of the unforgettable aroma of truffles to the history of mycological poisons wielded by enslaved people against their enslavers.
Pinto brings a new perspective and a distinctive literary voice to this mix of environmental and lived history, and every page sings with her enthusiasm for the networks in which we are embedded: fungal, ecological, ancestral, and communal. Join her in pursuit of beautiful, perplexing, delicious, and deadly mushrooms as she explores this understudied kingdom's awe-inspiring diversity and discovers how fungi have been used by people, especially those on the margins, for survival, pleasure, revelation, and revolution.
Pinto brings a new perspective and a distinctive literary voice to this mix of environmental and lived history, and every page sings with her enthusiasm for the networks in which we are embedded: fungal, ecological, ancestral, and communal. Join her in pursuit of beautiful, perplexing, delicious, and deadly mushrooms as she explores this understudied kingdom's awe-inspiring diversity and discovers how fungi have been used by people, especially those on the margins, for survival, pleasure, revelation, and revolution.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Chapel Hill
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
notes
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
293 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4696-8979-1 (9781469689791)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Maria Pinto
Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless
What Fungi Taught Me about Nourishment, Poison, Ecology, Hidden Histories, Zombies, and Black Survival
E-Book
09/2025
The University of North Carolina Press
€15.49
Available for download
Person
Maria Pinto is a Boston-area writer, mycophile, and educator who was born in Jamaica and grew up in South Florida.