Classes and products are offered by Linda Wastila, proprietor of ROOT RISE BE, a woman who tends plants and words on her small homestead in West Virginia. Recently retired from academia, Linda grows and forages most of the plants used in her products. A former pharmacist and professor, she grooves on sharing her passion and knowledge with others eager to for health autonomy and self-sufficiency. A WV Master Naturalist, Linda will happily walk and geek out with you over the local flora and fauna.

Writing is Linda’s second passion. You can read her stories and poems in places like Fractured Lit (2025 Anthology Prize) The Missouri Review (2021 Perkins Award winner for fiction) The Penn Review, Citron Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Monkeybicycle, Blue Fifth Review, and Nanoism, among others. She received her MA in Writing from John Hopkins in 2015, and puts that experience to good use as she works on her novels and memoir. She is available as a writing and editing consultant, and offers writing classes at ROOT RISE BE. You can find her ponderings on nature, medicine, and morality at https://professormus.substack.com/.‍ ‍