Terry Tempest Williams

A tribute to W. S. Merwin, with Sonnet Coggins, Robert Hass, Edward Hirsch, Howard Norman, Naomi Shihab Nye, Michael Ondaatje, John Burnham Schwartz, Tracy K. Smith, Michael Wiegers, and Terry Tempest Williams.

Friends and fellow writers read from the work of W. S. Merwin in commemoration of his death on March 15, 2019. A two-term U.S. Poet Laureate, Merwin’s influence on American poetics has been profound. (rmharris)… (més)

While browsing a Stonington, Maine, bookstore, Brooke Williams and Terry Tempest Williams discovered a rare copy of an exquisite autobiography by nineteenth-century British nature writer Richard Jefferies, who develops his understanding of a "soul-life" while wandering the wild countryside of Wiltshire, England. Brooke and Terry, like John Fowles, Henry Miller, and Rachel Carson before, were inspired by the prescient words of this visionary writer, who describes ineffable feelings of being at one with nature. In an introduction and essays set alongside Jefferies' writing, the Williams share their personal pilgrimage to Wiltshire to understand this man of "cosmic consciousness" and how their exploration of Jefferies deepened their own relationship while illuminating dilemmas of modernity, the intrinsic need for wildness, and what it means to be human in the twenty-first century.

John Richard Jefferies (6 November 1848 - 14 August 1887) was a British novelist and essayist who helped pioneer the field of modern nature writing. Jefferies described the English countryside with an intimate vividness and expansive passion that inspired both his contemporaries and later writers.

Terry Tempest Williams is the author of fourteen books including Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, and most recently, When Women Were Birds. Recipient of John Simon Guggenheim and Lannan Literary Fellowships in creative nonfiction, she is the Annie Clark Tanner scholar in the Environmental Humanities Graduate Program at the University of Utah. Her work has been anthologized and translated world-wide.

Brooke Williams has spent thirty years advocating for wildness, most recently with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and as the Executive Director of the Murie Center in Moose, Wyoming. He holds an MBA in Sustainable Business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute and a Biology degree from the University of Utah. He's written four books including Halflives: Reconciling Work and Wildness, and dozens of articles. He is involved in The Great West Institute, a think tank exploring expansion and innovation in the conservation movement and is currently working on a book about ground-truthing.

Brooke and Terry have been married since 1975. They live with their dogs in Jackson, Wyoming, and Castle Valley, Utah.

"Brooke and Terry give a sense of cohesion to Jefferies's writing, and leave readers with much to ponder about our own chaotic, fast-paced, work-obsessed world." --Publishers Weekly

"This perfect little package of a book reads like a hymnal, a philosophical treatise, a love story and a meandering walk up a grassy knoll. When Terry and Brooke happened upon a rare copy of Jefferies' memoir, it sparked in them an obsession with the little known 19th century British nature writer. What resulted is his original text set alongside their own musings and journeys, a balanced meditation on how one is to find a 'soul-life' in the natural world, as it ever changes and disappears." --Melinda Powers, Bookshop Santa Cruz

"Williams displays a Whitmanesque embrace of the world and its contradictions...As the pages accumulate, her voice grows in majesty and power until it become a full-fledged aria." --San Francisco Chronicle

Location: Street: Albuquerque Academy Additional: 6400 Wyoming Blvd NE City: Albuquerque, Province: New Mexico Postal Code: 87109 Country: United States (afegit de IndieBound)… (més)

When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams Thursday, May 2nd, 7:00pm at Longfellow Books

"I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won’t look at them until after I’m gone."

This is what Terry Tempest Williams’s mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, told her a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as it was to discover that the three shelves of journals were all blank. In fifty-four short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own faith, and contemplates the notion of absence and presence art and in our world. When Women Were Birds is a carefully crafted kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question: What does it mean to have a voice? "A lyrical, timeless book that rewards quiet, attentive reading—a rare thing." -The Huffington Post Join us to meet award-winning author, Terry Tempest Williams, hear her read from this beautiful book of essays and get your books signed. As always, Longfellow Books events are free and open to the public.

Location: Street: One Monument Way City: Portland, Province: Maine Postal Code: 04101-4078 Country: United States (afegit de IndieBound)… (més)

5PM SATURDAY, MARCH 16 Terry Tempest Williams: When Women Were Birds Legendary conservationist and award-winning author Terry Tempest Williams presents her new book When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice.

"I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won't look at them until after I'm gone," said Terry Tempest Williams's mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as it was to discover that the three shelves of journals were all blank. In fifty-four short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own faith, and contemplates the notion of absence and presence in art and in our world. When Women Were Birds asks - what does it mean to have a voice?

EVENT DETAILS Event ticket (admits two) is free when you purchase When Women Were Birds from Changing Hands Bookstore. Letter groups (printed on top of ticket) will be called at 4pm to fill seats and designated standing room. If available, seating and standing room opens to those without tickets at 4:45pm. Space cannot be guaranteed for late arrivals. Booksigning line forms by assigned letter group after the presentation. Those without tickets may get their books signed after ticket-holders, if time allows. Event details may be subject to unannounced changes. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Terry Tempest Williams is the award-winning author of Finding Beauty in a Broken World, The Open Space of Democracy, An Unspoken Hunger, Leap, and Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert. She is also a conservationist and activist who has testified before Congress on women's health, protested with Code Pink, and been a guest of the White House. She is a recipent of the Robert Marshall Award from The Wildnerness Society, a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association, a Wallace Stegner Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in creative non-fiction She lives in Castle Valley, Utah but makes annual trips to Maine. Released in hardcover in April of last year, When Women Were Birds appeared on many of 2012's "Best Book of the Year" lists and was hailed as "brilliant, meditative, and full of surprises, wisdom and wonder" by Anne Lamott, bestselling author of Imperfect Birds.

CAN'T MAKE IT? If you'd like a signed book from any of our author events, please call us at 480.730.0205 or click "add to cart" below (let us know in the "order comments" field to whom you'd like your book(s) personalized) to pre-pay and we'll have one or more copies signed and reserved for you. We also ship anywhere in the United States and to most international locations (extra charges apply).

Location: Street: 6428 S McClintock Dr. City: Tempe, Province: Arizona Postal Code: 85283 Country: United States (afegit de IndieBound)… (més)

When Women Were Birds

When Terry Tempest Williams’s mother told her, “I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won’t look at them until after I’m gone,” she was shocked to learn that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as what she found when the time came to open them, because they were all blank.When Women Were Birds is a lyrical and caring meditation on the mystery of her mother's action, ultimately turning around the question, “What does it mean to have a voice?” Terry Tempest Williams is the author of fourteen books, including Refuge, Leap, The Open Space of Democracy, and, most recently, Finding Beauty in a Broken World. The recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and a Lannan Literary Fellowship in creative nonfiction, she divides her time between Castle Valley, Utah, and Moose, Wyoming.

“The writing of Terry Tempest Williams is brilliant, meditative, and full of surprises, wisdom, and wonder. She’s one of those writers who changes peoples’ lives by encouraging attention and a slow, patient awakening.” -Anne Lamott, author of Operating Instructions and Help, Thanks, Wow

Location: Street: 5233 N. Clark St. City: Chicago, Province: Illinois Postal Code: 60640-2122 Country: United States (afegit de IndieBound)… (més)

The beloved author of Refuge returns with a work that explodes and startles, illuminates and celebrates.

“The writing of Terry Tempest Williams is brilliant, meditative, and full of surprises, wisdom, and wonder. She’s one of those writers who changes peoples’ lives by encouraging attention and a slow, patient awakening.”--Anne Lamott, author of Help, Thanks, Wow Readers of Williams’s iconic and unconventional memoir, Refuge, well remember Terry Tempest Williams’ mother. She was one of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah who developed cancer as a result of the nuclear testing in nearby Nevada. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as what she found when the time came to read them. In When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice (available in paperback, March 5, 2013), Terry Tempest Williams tells what she discovered in those books:

“They were exactly where she said they would be: three shelves of beautiful cloth-bound books... I opened the first journal. It was empty. I opened the second journal. It was empty. I opened the third. It too was empty... Shelf after shelf after shelf, all of my mother’s journals were blank.”

In fifty-four chapters that unfold like a series of yoga poses, each with its own logic and beauty, Williams creates a lyrical and caring meditation of the mystery of her mother's journals. When Women Were Birds is a kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question “What does it mean to have a voice?”

“Here, readers get a Terry Tempest Williams who is at the top of her game, the master of her craft . . . a gift from a writer who knows how to split the world open.”--Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild This event will be held in the Weyerhaeuser Chapel, on the campus of Macalester College. ----

Terry Tempest Williams is the award-winning author of fourteen books, including Leap, An Unspoken Hunger, Refuge, and Finding Beauty in a Broken World. She divides her time between Castle Valley, Utah, and Moose, Wyoming.

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A performance of Wild Mercy, by Emmy Award-winning St Paul composer Steve Heitzeg, will kick off this spring’s reading by Terry Tempest Williams.

Steve Heitzeg’s Wild Mercy--a setting of Terry Tempest Williams’ poem of the same name, written in honor of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--is the third movement from his song cycle Wild Songs for soprano and two percussionists. Wild Songs was commissioned by The Schubert Club in honor of its 125th anniversary, as part of the Wild Music Exhibition at the Science Museum of Minnesota in 2007. Scored for soprano, Yupik frame drum and two Beluga whale jawbones, the austere Wild Mercy is a plea to preserve the ANWR and nature. The instruments used are from that region, including two Beluga whale jawbones from a stranded whale which are on loan from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service. “It is an honor to set these powerful and prophetic words of Terry Tempest Williams to music,” says Heitzeg. “Her vision and commitment to the environment is inspiring.” Performing Wild Mercy will be the acclaimed soprano Polly Butler Cornelius, and renowned percussionists Heather Barringer and Erik Barsness. Polly Butler Cornelius teaches at Elon University in North Carolina. She is no stranger to the international stage and performs frequently in Italy and at major venues across the U.S. She is in demand as a soloist for opera, oratorio and song recital, where she specializes in new music by living composers. Heather Barringer is an innovative percussionist and artistic co-director of the groundbreaking new music ensemble Zeitgeist. Erik Barsness is a prolific percussionist and co-director of the contemporary music group Ensemble 61. Emmy Award-winning composer Steve Heitzeg is recognized for his evocative and lyrical scores written in support of social and environmental justice issues. His music is performed by leading orchestras and ensembles, and conductors from Marin Alsop to Osmo Vänskä have conducted his works. Heitzeg has set other works of Terry Tempest Williams including most recently her I Pray to the Birds, commissioned by Beth and Nate Kellar Long and premiered by the Minnesota Chorale (Kathy Saltzman Romey, Artistic Director) in 2010.

Location: Street: 38 S Snelling Ave City: Saint Paul, Province: Minnesota Postal Code: 55105 Country: United States (afegit de IndieBound)… (més)

A Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year "Brilliant, meditative, and full of surprises, wisdom, and wonder."—Ann Lamott, author of Imperfect Birds "I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won’t look at them until after I’m gone." This is what Terry Tempest Williams’s mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, told her a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as it was to discover that the three shelves of journals were all blank. In fifty-four short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own faith, and contemplates the notion of absence and presence in art and in our world. When Women Were Birds is a carefully crafted kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question: What does it mean to have a voice?

About the Author Terry Tempest Williams is the award-winning author of fourteen books, including Leap, An Unspoken Hunger, Refuge, and, most recently, Finding Beauty in a Broken World. She divides her time between Castle Valley, Utah, and Moose, Wyoming.

Location: Street: 55 Haywood St City: Asheville, Province: North Carolina Postal Code: 28801 Country: United States (afegit de IndieBound)… (més)

Motherhood by the Book is led by Claire, VB staffer, mother of a toddler, and stepmother of an adolescent.

The book group meets on the second Sunday of every month at 2pm in the Book Fare Cafe for an hour of spirited discussion of books that celebrate the trials, tribulations, and rewards of motherhood, and what it means to be a mother. This group is by no means exclusive to moms with kids still at home, but much of the selection may be geared toward issues that those moms face. We will read fiction, non-fiction, and parenting books.

Sun, Jan 13, 2pm

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams

In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by.

Location: Street: 1200 11th St City: Bellingham, Province: Washington Postal Code: 98225-7015 Country: United States (afegit de IndieBound)… (més)