Diana Helmuth Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Diana Helmuth is an accomplished author, freelance writer, hiker, producer, and Silicon Valley start up veteran.

Her name is pronounced ‘hell-myth’ and she likes to write about various urges, whether it is the urge to be in nature, to travel more, or to feel like you are understood more.

The first book that she wrote was called How to Suffer Outside. The book proved to be immensely popular and was a National Outdoor Book Award recipient for Best Instructional. This is a great book to check out if you are wanting to get out into the outdoors more in your life. You can find her freelance writing in different anthologies, travel guides, and magazines.

Diana attended UC Berkeley, where she studied anthropology and Arabic, and also studied at the American University in Cairo. She is frequently moonlighting in Silicon Valley’s land of start-ups or even producing a podcast. She was born in the northern California area, where she grew up.

She loves to write and in her free time can be found baking cupcakes and gardening, even though she says that she’s ‘pretty bad’.

Her work has been featured in such publications and places as NPR, The Sydney Morning Herald, The New York Times, The Seattle Times, Nebraska Public Media, CurbedSF, Outdoor Life, Publisher’s Weekly, Pajiba, Adventure Journal, and Longreads, as well as others. She has also written a travel book with Lonely Planet called Hidden Libraries, which was picked to be a Non-Obvious Book Awards Longlist Selection.

She has interviewed many people for the Fifty Places travel series and occasionally writes and tests backpacking gear for Outdoor Life magazine. In addition to writing, she has assisted various startups in the San Francisco Bay Area with their pursuit of operational growth and creating first products.

Diana has also served as a producer on Da7e and Neil’s Pop Culture Adventure and The Storm: A Lost Rewatch Podcast.

How to Suffer Outside: A Beginner’s Guide to Hiking and Backpacking is a 2021 book by Diana Helmuth. Have you always loved the thought of hiking and backpacking but never really got into it? This is a great guide for those who are just getting started or have never been but want to!

With great colorful illustrations that are also funny, Diana gives readers a nonfiction work that is partially a critique of modern hiking culture and partially a how-to guide on how to hike.

This is a great book that offers real advice and also experiences of her own of being out in the field. In addition, every chapter takes on its own topic, whether food, gear, clothing, hygiene, or something else. Featuring illustrations by Latasha Dunston, this is a great book on hiking that you won’t want to miss.

The Witching Year: A Memoir of Earnest Fumbling through Modern Witchcraft is a memoir by Diana Helmuth. It was nominated for a 2023 Goodreads Choice Award and was featured on NPR’s program All Things Considered.

Diana is skeptical of organized and disorganized religion and decides to try the fastest-growing faith– witchcraft. She records her experience through 366 days of trial and error and observation. She wants to join this group and learn all the rules and incantations and read the liturgy. The only issue is that it appears that the witches cannot agree on what the proper rules, liturgy, and incantations actually are.

Just as she does in life, Diana is going to have to dive in head first and figure out more about this craft and maybe even define it in her own way. She does her best to look past what is fashionable and on trend and is doing her best to try and discover who she can define the real in a book that The Seattle Times is praising as being ‘Witty’ and ‘Charming’.

While doing so, she makes her way to Salem and Edinburgh and even ends up going to a Witch camp that is clothing optional and lasts for a week in northern California. She also tries out various things such as doing a full moon ritual on a cardboard box, summoning a demon with scotch tape and a kitchen trivet, or just doing her best to be a person that is calmer and happier while also questioning whether any of it is going to work at all.

This is a unique look at Wicca and being a witch that goes into this practice through Diana Helmuth’s eyes. So many readers have praised this book, such as author Ronald Hutton who describes this as ‘a book that I shall keep’ and calls it ‘highly intelligent, extremely funny, and good-hearted’ that also asks ‘some profound questions’ to which plausible answers are provided.

Perfect for the September and October moving into November season, celebrate spooky season in the best way with a good book that is on-point thematically. If you have been wanting something interesting to read and you’re a big fan of nonfiction, check out The Witching Year by Diana Helmuth to see what she has to say about this topic.