Apricot Irving is the author of The Gospel of Trees, a lyrical meditation on ecology, loss and the tangled history of missions in Haiti. She reported on post-earthquake recovery efforts in the north of Haiti for the radio program This American Life.

She has taught literature and writing in many contexts and countries.

As a writer she has spent a great deal of time interviewing and listening to the stories of others. For her memoir she also had to do a lot of listening to herself. With the listening comes a deeper awareness of the practices and habits that surround lament.