Nature of Writing Speaker Series | Fall 2024
Calling all nature lovers and bibliophiles! Discover your next great read for the Fall and Winter months in presentations by authors, artists and naturalists sharing their new works. For the first time this Fall, the Nature of Writing speaker series will head south to Seattle and our friends at Third Place Books — to run the river with Steve Duda, swim with salmon with Mary Boone,and leap into the world of frogs with Institute friend & artist Tony Angell, among others. In Bellingham with our friends at Village Books, we will wander the Wonderland Trail with Tami Asars, glimpse the changing Arctic with Jon Waterman, celebrate the life of Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut — the orca also known as Tokitae — with members of the Lummi Nation and more. We hope to see you at a reading this Fall!
BELLINGHAM
With Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinley and Julie Trimingham, illustrated by Sienum Jason LaClair, translated by Na-tak-ultan Tino Kurtz
Thursday, September 19 at 7 pm
Sehome High School
▸ FACEBOOK EVENT
Dive into the story of a young NW orca who was stolen from her family and sold to a theme park. Learn how she became a beloved performer, inspired people across the world to fight for her freedom, and how Lummi Nation worked to bring her home. Follow the story of Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, the orca also known as Tokitae or Lolita. Stolen from her family in 1970, this Puget Sound orca was sold to the Miami Aquarium where she performed for over 50 years. The Lummi people, a Native tribe in Northwestern Washington State, consider the local orcas to be part of their human family. Members of Lummi Nation worked to bring their relation back home, and succeeded in bringing tribes, politicians, corporations, philanthropists, and activists together for common cause. Sk’aliCh’elht-tenaut was on the verge of homecoming when she suddenly died in captivity.
This book's creative team includes members from the Lummi Nation. It aims to include and honor Native stories, values and perspectives. This event will include music, an honoring of the Lummi tribal members who worked to bring Sk’aliCh’elht-enaut home, a bilingual reading of the story and display of the artwork.
by Tami Asars
Thursday, October 10 at 6 pm
Village Books Reading Gallery
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Washington State's famed Wonderland Trail is a spectacular 93-mile route that circumnavigates Mount Rainier, challenging hikers with its strenuous 22,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain and loss. Hiking the Wonderland Trail: The Complete Guide to Mount Rainier's Premier Trail is an authoritative guidebook penned by Washington native Tami Asars, a professional instructor on hiking the trail, a third-generation hiker of the Cascade mountains, and seven-time hiker of the entire Wonderland Trail. In this guide Asars covers topics like navigating the permit reservation system, recommended gear & how to pack the perfect backpack. Hiking the Wonderland Trail distills Asars years of notes & boot-tested knowledge to help everyone enjoy the magic of Mount Rainier's premier trail.
by Robert Dash
Sunday, October 20 at 6 pm
Village Books Readings Gallery
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Food Planet Future takes the reader on a remarkable visual tour of everyday foods and in the process, connects us more deeply to the world we help to shape. It draws upon art, research, and innovative practices to reimagine the tangled crises of food security, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Food Planet Future invokes awe and wonder and inspires action taken on our Earth’s behalf.
“Robert Dash’s extraordinary images are doorways to both knowledge and imagination. Great art gives us new eyes and minds. We see the world differently and are transformed in turn. What you see here are the light catchers, the photon transformers, the source of life for every living being. Seeing through Robert’s lens is to appreciate the mystery and grandeur of the living world in a way that is unforgettable.” Paul Hawken, Founder, Regeneration.org
by Jon Waterman
Sunday, November 10 at 5 pm
Village Books Readings Gallery
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Forty years ago, when park ranger Jon Waterman took his first journey into the Alaskan Arctic, he was astonished by the abundant wildlife, the strange landscape, and its otherworldly light. After a 30-year absence, Waterman returned with his son in 2021 and was shocked and heartbroken by the changes. The following year, in 2022, he took one final journey "into the thaw" to document — for this lushly illustrated and scholarly book — the environmental and cultural changes wrought by the climate crisis. Waterman's narrative alternates between adventure and wilderness memoir and plainly stated natural history of the area. Chased by bears, sometimes alone for weeks on end amid hordes of mosquitoes, he notes the extraordinary changes from 1983 until the present day: brush grown over the tundra in a phenomenon called Greening of the Arctic, tear-drop-shaped landslide thaw slumps caused by thawing permafrost, and an increasing loss of sea ice as he travels along the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The author also spends time with the welcoming Inuit or Inupiat most affected by the Arctic crisis, who share how their age-old culture has attempted to cope with "the thaw." Through his quest for wonder, Waterman shows how the Arctic can confer grace on those who pass through. Despite the unfolding crisis, as a narrative of hope, at the book's end he suggests actions we can all take to slow the thaw and preserve what is left of this remarkable, vast frontier.
by Steve Duda
A Chuckanut Radio Hour event!
Thursday, November 14 at 7 pm
Hotel Leo's Crystal Ballroom
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River Songs is rich with bracing, authentic, generous stories – writing that revels in language and spirit. Avoiding most of fly fishing’s clichés – the romantic elegies, the Moby-Dick-like conquests, the play-by-play detailing a "victory" over a fish – Steve Duda instead offers pieces that breathe lived experience, reveal vulnerabilities, and convey a broad perspective of what it means to have "a long run with a tight crew." Duda is interested in what has been learned out there on the river: what is it about this "ridiculous activity" that connects us to this planet, makes us human, gives us hope? River Songs focuses on the in-between moments and the unexpected revelations – awe, fear, frustration, doubt, joy – that are as much a part of fishing as tying knots and chucking flies. Readers ride along with Duda in battered pickup trucks, fish "between jobs," look longingly at unfished famous rivers while touring with a country-punk band, and wonder how a fishing trip led to getting a tooth pulled while being surrounded by trash-talking friends. They will find beauty, discovery, heartbreak, good dogs, and the wonder of nature within the expanse of Northwest landscapes and beyond.
by Betsy Howell
Sunday, November 24 at 5 pm
Village Books Readings Gallery
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Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Betsy L. Howell spent her childhood exploring and thriving in old-growth coniferous forests. In the summer of 1986, she volunteered in Mt. Hood National Forest, surveying northern spotted owls. That summer position turned into three decades as a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service during a time of tremendous change within the agency. The twenty-five essays in Wild Forest Home chronicle Howell’s career and personal experiences studying the wildlife of the Pacific Northwest during the litigious listing of the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet under the Endangered Species Act and the Clinton administration’s adoption of the seminal 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. Meanwhile, Howell toiled on fire crews, searched for rare species, helped to monitor fishers reintroduced to the Olympic Peninsula, tested amphibians for deadly diseases, became a writer, and mourned the deaths of her parents. This captivating memoir seamlessly blends story and science to reveal a unique portrait of the struggles and joys of one wildlife biologist.
SEATTLE
by Steve Duda
Wednesday, September 4 at 7 pm;
Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park
▸ EVENT INFO
River Songs is rich with bracing, authentic, generous stories – writing that revels in language and spirit. Avoiding most of fly fishing’s clichés – the romantic elegies, the Moby-Dick-like conquests, the play-by-play detailing a "victory" over a fish – Steve Duda instead offers pieces that breathe lived experience, reveal vulnerabilities, and convey a broad perspective of what it means to have "a long run with a tight crew." Duda is interested in what has been learned out there on the river: what is it about this "ridiculous activity" that connects us to this planet, makes us human, gives us hope? River Songs focuses on the in-between moments and the unexpected revelations – awe, fear, frustration, doubt, joy – that are as much a part of fishing as tying knots and chucking flies. Readers ride along with Duda in battered pickup trucks, fish "between jobs," look longingly at unfished famous rivers while touring with a country-punk band, and wonder how a fishing trip led to getting a tooth pulled while being surrounded by trash-talking friends. They will find beauty, discovery, heartbreak, good dogs, and the wonder of nature within the expanse of Northwest landscapes and beyond.
With Mary Boone and Amanda Abler
Wednesday, September 25 at 6 pm
Third Place Books in Ravenna
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Mary Boone’s School of Fish, Emmy and her classmates have a special hands-on assignment: raising salmon and releasing them into the wild! At school, they learn about the biology, life cycle, and habitat of salmon, and watch them grow from egg stage to fry stage. When Release Day comes, the students wish their fry goodbye and good luck, hoping that one day they'll find their way back to spawn. And Amanda Abler’s Big Bertha tells the incredible story of Bertha, the massive tunnel boring machine that successfully constructed the longest and widest road tunnel in the contiguous United States, under the city of Seattle, brought to life in vibrant and engaging illustrations, to appeal to budding engineers of all ages.
With Tony Angell
Thursday, October 10 at 7 pm
Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park
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In this short book, celebrated biologist Marty Crump leads readers on a worldwide field trip in search of frogs. Each chapter of Frog Day covers a single frog during a single hour, highlighting how twenty-four different species spend their time. Our day begins at midnight in Indonesia, with the rustle of leaves above. It’s not a bird, but Wallace’s flying frog, using its webbed feet and emerald-green skin flaps to glide through the forest canopy. In the early hours of the morning, we hear a horned marsupial frog “bopping” and a wood frog “quacking” to attract mates. At six o’clock in the morning, beneath a streetlight in Honolulu, we meet a corpulent, invasive cane toad slurping insects—and sometimes snakes, lizards, turtles, birds, and mice. At noon, we watch parenting in action as an African bullfrog bulldozes a path through the mud to free his tadpoles from a drying pond. At dusk, in a Peruvian rainforest, we observe “the ultimate odd couple”—a hairy tarantula and what looks like a tiny amphibian pet taking shelter in the spider’s burrow. Other frogs make a tasty meal for this tarantula, but the dotted humming frog is a friend, eating the ants that might otherwise make a meal of the tarantula’s eggs.
For each hour in our Frog Day, award-winning artist Tony Angell has depicted these scenes with his signature pen and ink illustrations. Working closely together to narrate and illustrate these unique moments in time, Crump and Angell have created an engaging read that is a perfect way to spend an hour or two—and a true gift for readers, amateur scientists, and all frog fans.
by Jon Waterman
Monday, November 11 at 7 pm
Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park
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Forty years ago, when park ranger Jon Waterman took his first journey into the Alaskan Arctic, he was astonished by the abundant wildlife, the strange landscape, and its otherworldly light. After a 30-year absence, Waterman returned with his son in 2021 and was shocked and heartbroken by the changes. The following year, in 2022, he took one final journey "into the thaw" to document — for this lushly illustrated and scholarly book — the environmental and cultural changes wrought by the climate crisis. Waterman's narrative alternates between adventure and wilderness memoir and plainly stated natural history of the area. Chased by bears, sometimes alone for weeks on end amid hordes of mosquitoes, he notes the extraordinary changes from 1983 until the present day: brush grown over the tundra in a phenomenon called Greening of the Arctic, tear-drop-shaped landslide thaw slumps caused by thawing permafrost, and an increasing loss of sea ice as he travels along the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The author also spends time with the welcoming Inuit or Inupiat most affected by the Arctic crisis, who share how their age-old culture has attempted to cope with "the thaw." Through his quest for wonder, Waterman shows how the Arctic can confer grace on those who pass through. Despite the unfolding crisis, as a narrative of hope, at the book's end he suggests actions we can all take to slow the thaw and preserve what is left of this remarkable, vast frontier.