Terry Tempest Williams has been called “a citizen writer,” a writer who speaks and speaks out eloquently on behalf of an ethical stance toward life. A naturalist and fierce advocate for freedom of speech, she has consistently shown us how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. “So here is my question,” she asks, “what might a different kind of power look like, feel like, and can power be redistributed equitably even beyond our own species?”
Williams, like her writing, cannot be categorized. She has testified before Congress on women’s health issues, been a guest at the White House, has camped in the remote regions of Utah and Alaska wildernesses and worked as “a barefoot artist” in Rwanda.
This was a moving and meaningful conversation. Terry and I discussed nature and its benefits, particularly during the pandemic. We discuss community, conversation, art, darkness and light…we run the gamut. I’m touched by and grateful to Terry for her willingness to spend the time. She’s a beautiful and gracious soul. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
Terry’s books:
- Erosion: Essays of Undoing – 2019
- The Hour of the Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks – 2016
- The Story of My Heart by Richard Jefferies as Rediscovered by Brooke Williams & Terry Tempest Williams – 2014
- When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice – 2012
- Finding Beauty in a Broken World – 2008
- The Illuminated Desert – 2008
- The Open Space of Democracy – 2004
- Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert – 2001
- Leap – 2000
- New Genesis: A Mormon Reader on Land and Community – 1998
- Testimony: Writers of the West Speak on Behalf of Utah Wilderness – 1996
- Great and Peculiar Beauty: A Utah Centennial Reader – 1995
- Desert Quarter: An Erotic Landscape – 1995
- An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field – 1994
- Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place – 1991
- Coyote’s Canyon – 1989
- Between Cattails – 1985
- Pieces of White Shell: A Journey to Navajoland – 1984
- Secret Language of Snow – 1984
Other books mentioned on this episode:
- Defacing the Monument by Susan Briante
- Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? by Judith Butler
- Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
- When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through edited by Joy Harjo
- The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne
- Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt
- Stranger Faces by Namwali Serpell
- The Undocumented Americans by Karla Conjeo Villavicencio
Other people mentioned in this episode:
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