Nature of Writing Speaker Series | Spring 2025https://ncascades.org/signup/programs/eventshttps://ncascades.org/logo.png
Nature of Writing Speaker Series | Spring 2025
Calling all nature lovers and bibliophiles! Discover your next great read in presentations by authors, artists, poets and naturalists sharing their new works during our Nature of Writing Speaker Series. In partnership with our bookseller co-hosts at Village Books in Bellingham and Third Place Books in Seattle, our Spring Series invites you to dive into Cascadian-inspired poetry collections; float and forage along the Pacific Northwest coast; journey deep into coastal temperate rainforests; discover wildlife & geology just outside your door; and meditate on your connection to this unique landscape through works by local and indigenous scientists, authors & poets. We hope to see you at a reading this Spring!
FEBRUARY
Born of Fire and Rain: Journey Into a Pacific Coastal Forest by M.L. Herring
Tuesday, February 18 at 7 pm Third Place Books, Ravenna ▸ RSVP
If you live on a rapidly changing planet, you’d be wise to learn how it works. In this engaging book science writer M. L. Herring takes readers into the Pacific temperate rainforest at the tumultuous edge of a shifting continent in a precarious moment of time. Readers peek behind the magnificent scenery into a forest of ancient trees, exploding mountains, disappearing owls, tsunamis, megafires, and ten million people to learn what it means to be a forest in a world of upheavals. Through Herring’s words and pictures, readers drift into the canopy through masses of ferns and lichens, burrow into soil through hair-thin threads of fungi, and plunge headlong through a watershed flushed with rain and snowmelt. Readers experience the temperate rainforest through science and art as it faces a shifting climate and the shifting priorities of a constantly changing society. The book journeys beyond the grid of latitude and longitude and into places only one’s imagination can fit, to discover what it means to be human in an ecological world.
MARCH
Rivers In My Veins by Kara Briggs
Sunday, March 2 at 5 pm Village Books Reading Gallery ▸ RSVP
With calm elegance and precise language, Rivers in My Veins is a work of lyric courage celebrating the connection we all share to the earth. Kara Briggs' poems sing her people, Sauk-Suiattle and Yakama, onto the pages. "Land we live on land," she writes, calling us to embrace our kinship with the earth. As a career journalist, Briggs uses documentary poetry to expose the false settler-colonial narratives while innovating rhythms from the social dances of her tribes in poems that take the reader to the dance circle. She received the 2024 James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poetry for "Acknowledgement Two," a poem in this collection about her uncle who fought for fishing rights. Her fierce love of lands, waters, and stories of her peoples are carried in familiar poetic forms-sonnet, pantoum, and haiku-as vehicles to carry the readers on a journey through our shared world of literary - and deeply alive - landscapes.
The Salmon Shanties: A Cascadian Song Cycle by Harold Rhenisch
Monday, March 10 at 6 pm Village Books Readings Gallery ▸ RSVP Tuesday, March 11 at 7 pm Third Place Books, Ravenna ▸ RSVP
A collection of shanties (songs) laid out in couplets that move between English and Chinook Wawa, The Salmon Shanties celebrates a poetic tradition deeply rooted on the West Coast. Harold Rhenisch explores memories of people, place, and of returning home, speaking the land’s names as a music of its own and creating a series of aural maps. Imbued with rhythms of Secwepemc grass dances, the colloquial chatter of the Canadian poet Al Purdy, and the voice of poet and historian Charles Lillard, Rhenisch’s work sings of roots to the land lifted up by the sea into the sky—as if Ezra Pound had sung of Cascadia instead of Europe.
Paddling the Salish Sea: 80 Trips in Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands, Olympic Peninsula and British Columbia by Rob Casey
Saturday, March 22 at 5 pm Village Books Readings Gallery ▸ RSVP
In Paddling the Salish Sea, professional kayaker and paddling coach Rob Casey guides paddlers to the most rewarding destinations across the region. This comprehensive guide covers everything from the quiet inlets of the South Sound to an entirely new section featuring the fjords, waterfalls, and local waterways around Vancouver, B.C. In between, paddlers will find urban explorations near Seattle and Everett; routes on the lakes, rivers, and shorelines of the Olympic Peninsula, Hood Canal, and the islands of the North Sound; and even more new choices in Canada’s Gulf Islands and around Victoria, B.C. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced paddlers all can find beautiful, rewarding routes for their skill levels. Casey’s expert advice on navigating the marine environment, paddling safety, gear, trip planning, and more provides all the practical information paddlers need to prepare for a successful, safe outing. For sea or flatwater kayakers, canoeists, rowers, or stand-up paddle boarders, Paddling the Salish Sea is the must-have guide for discovering the wonders of the Puget Sound.
APRIL
Wild Forest Home: Stories of Conservation in the Pacific Northwest by Betsy L. Howell
Friday, April 4 at 7 pm Third Place Books, Ravenna ▸ RSVP
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.
Pacific Harvest: A Northwest Coast Foraging Guide by Jennifer Hahn
Wednesday, April 16 at 7 pm; Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park ▸ RSVP
Discover the Pacific Coast’s tastiest wild delicacies from the beach, field, and forest! Written by expert forager and guide Jennifer Hahn, this guide introduces both novice and more experienced foragers to the Pacific Coast’s ample and diverse edible species. Recognizing your local edible berries, flowers, greens, roots, tree parts, mushrooms, seaweeds, beach vegetables, and shellfish is a passport to a comforting sense of place. Hahn also highlights authentic Indigenous harvesting practices including profiles of Indigenous leaders in the traditional foods movement. Hahn emphasizes a sustainable approach to foraging, reminding readers what other beings also depend on these plants and animals as food and shelter sources.
Encountering Dragonfly: Notes on the Practice of Re-Enchantment by Brooke Williams In conversation with Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Thursday, April 24 at 6 pm Village Books Readings Gallery ▸ RSVP
Two decades ago, naturalist and environmental writer Brooke Williams had a powerful dream about a dragonfly, a dream that cracked open his world by giving rise to a steady stream of dragonfly encounters in his waking life. Encountering Dragonfly is his account—related in a series of odonate encounters—of being drawn into a different kind of relationship with the natural world. By opening himself to the personal and mytho-poetic meanings of dragonfly, and patiently courting an understanding of these creatures that is built upon, but also transcends, a naturalist’s observation, Brooke has come to believe in the importance of ‘re-enchantment.’
Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature by David B. Williams
Tuesday, April 29 at 7 pm Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park ▸ RSVP
For award-winning natural history writer David B. Williams, to be connected to a place you need to pause and look deeply at it. "Wild in Seattle" is Williams’ delightful journey of discovery in this city where not only is nature all around, it’s also written in the stones of the urban landscape. Explore the geologic history of glaciers, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes as well as the ways humans shape the Seattle topography. From backyards to downtown, watch for coyotes, crows, seals, otters, owls, and so much more wildlife who also call the region home. Look up at the buildings to find terra cotta eagles, stone that traveled over millions of years from Asia to the San Juan Islands, and clues to the horses who used to power the city’s transportation network. Wrap your arms around a giant Douglas-fir, appreciate the unsung yet remarkable skunk cabbage, stop and listen to the spring chorus of frogs. Williams’ lively essays woven with Elizabeth Person’s engaging illustrations will fire up the curiosity of both residents and visitors alike, inspiring all to take a fresh look at the Emerald City.
MAY
Pacific Harvest: A Northwest Coast Foraging Guide by Jennifer Hahn
Friday, May 2 at 6 pm; Village Books Readings Gallery ▸ RSVP
Discover the Pacific Coast’s tastiest wild delicacies from the beach, field, and forest! Written by expert forager and guide Jennifer Hahn, this guide introduces both novice and more experienced foragers to the Pacific Coast’s ample and diverse edible species. Recognizing your local edible berries, flowers, greens, roots, tree parts, mushrooms, seaweeds, beach vegetables, and shellfish is a passport to a comforting sense of place. Hahn also highlights authentic Indigenous harvesting practices including profiles of Indigenous leaders in the traditional foods movement. Hahn emphasizes a sustainable approach to foraging, reminding readers what other beings also depend on these plants and animals as food and shelter sources.
Spirography: A Memoir of Family, Loss and Finding Home by Cara Stoddard
Saturday, May 3 at 6 pm Village Books Readings Gallery ▸ RSVP Thursday, May 15 at 7 pm Third Place Books, Ravenna ▸ RSVP
Writing from ten years after her father's death, she traces her experiences of becoming a stepparent, carrying on her dad's legacy, and, in unimaginable ways, bringing him back to life. Spirography is a coming-of-age memoir about the bond between a father and daughter, their intertwined illnesses, and the enduring love that persists even after death. This memoir follows author Cara Stoddard's intersecting experiences of cancer, grief, and sexuality, rooted in the suburban Midwest of the late twentieth century—where idyllic lake life, water sports, NASCAR, Christian rock, and a willful ignorance around queerness define the landscape. Set in the author's childhood home on a lake in Michigan, this lyrical archive of a family navigating crisis is an elegy not only for the memory of her father but also the end of her childhood spent outdoors.
The Trees Are Speaking by Lynda V. Mapes
Friday, May 16 at 6 pm Children of the Setting Sun, Bellingham ▸ RSVP
Ancient and carbon-rich, old-growth forests play an irreplaceable role in the environment. Their complex ecosystems clean the air, purify the water, cool the planet, and teem with life. In a time of climate catastrophe, old-growth and other natural forests face existential threats caused by humans--and their survival is crucial to ours. In a bicoastal journey, environmental journalist Lynda V. Mapes connects the present and future of Pacific Northwest forests to the hard-logged legacy forests of the northeastern United States. With vibrant storytelling supported by science and traditional ecological knowledge, Mapes invites readers to understand the world where trees are kin, not commodities. The Trees Are Speaking is essential reading for those with a deep interest in environmental stewardship, Indigenous land rights, and the urgent challenges posed by climate change.
This event is co-sponsored by Children of the Setting Sun, and will be held at the their new downtown bellingham location.
A Rockhound's Guide to Oregon & Washington by Alison Jean Cole
Thursday, May 22 at 7 pm Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park ▸ RSVP
The Pacific Northwest’s complex geologic history makes it a treasure trove for rockhounds! In this guide, artist & geology enthusiast Alison Jean Cole shares 60 sites where you can explore ancient sea-floors, epic lava flows, glacier-carved landscapes, and evidence of 200 million years of tectonic action. Discover agates and jaspers in the volcanic Cascade Range and marine fossils along the Oregon Coast. Search for concretions along the Olympic Peninsula, petrified wood in the Owyhee Uplands, and much more. Cole offers detailed information on where exactly to begin a rock hunt, including an overview of the area’s geologic history and age, what types of rocks are worth finding there, needed tools, land manager, and collection limits.
JUNE
Ian's Ride: A Long-Distance Journey to Joy by Karen Polinsky
Tuesday, June 10 at 7 pm Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park ▸ RSVP
After a bike accident left avid outdoor adventurer and biology student Ian Mackay permanently paralyzed from the shoulders down, his life was at a standstill. Gradually, with the help of his dedicated family, especially his mom, Teena, Ian’s love of nature began to pull him outside again, first through bird-watching, then through longer and longer wheelchair rides on a paved trail near his home. In this intimate biography based on more than one hundred hours of interviews, journal entries, and more, writer Karen Polinsky recounts with Ian his accident and determined journey, including a three-hundred-thirty-mile trip across Washington state, setting the world record for the greatest distance traveled in a motorized wheelchair in twenty-four hours, and becoming a champion for accessible trails. This raw, fiercely tender, and inspiring true story examines how we exist in our bodies, adapt to and overcome adversity, and above all, what makes our hearts tick.
SPECIAL EVENT
Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane in conversation with David B. Williams
Thursday, June 12 at 7 pm Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park ▸ RSVP
Hailed in the New York Times as “a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler,” Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada—imperiled respectively by mining, pollution, and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane’s house, a stream who flows through his own years and days. Powered by dazzling prose and lit throughout by other minds and voices, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, challenge perspectives, and remind us that our fate flows with that of rivers—and always has.
