Terry Tempest Williams in Bellingham, 6/21/12

 

Terry Tempest Williams reads from When Women Were Birds June 21, 2012 at 
Bellingham High School
 in Bellingham, Washington. This presentation was sponsored by North Cascades Institute and Village Books as part of "The Nature of Writing" series and was attended by more than 400 people.

Before her death, Williams's mother gave Terry her journals. Later, when Williams went to read them, longing to hear her mother's voice again, she found each one was blank. Through When Women Were Birds, Williams meditates on why her mother might have left the journals unfilled. What did that signify to her mother? What was her mother telling her?

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. Known for her impassioned and lyrical prose, Terry Tempest Williams is the author of the environmental literature classic Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field, Desert Quartet, Leap, Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert and The Open Space of Democracy.

Read more at www.cascadiaweekly.com/entertainment/mystery_and_mythology_with_terry_tempest_williams.

Video shot and edited by Christian Martin. Photo of Williams by Marion Ettlinger; opening music courtesy of KEXP via the Free Music Archive.