This Tuesday evening we welcome Ana Maria Spagna and Heather Durham, two authors of essay collections published recently. We will be hosting a joint reading for them to share their nature-inspired works with a brief question and answer session. Come, have a glass of wine, and listen to these writers tell you their stories.
Ana Maria Spagna lives and writes in Stehekin, Washington, where her most recent book, Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going, is set. She is the author of several previous books including The Luckiest Scar on Earth, a novel for young people, 100 Skills for the End of the World (as We Know It), a humorous guide to living lightly on the planet, the memoir/history Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus, winner of the River Teeth literary nonfiction prize, and two collections of essays, Potluck and Now Go Home. Her work has been recognized by the Society for Environmental Journalists, the Nautilus Book Awards, and as a three-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She teaches creative writing in the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles.
Heather Durham holds a Master of Science in Environmental Biology from Antioch New England University and a Master of Fine Arts from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. She’s held a variety of environmental jobs around the country, from interpretive park ranger to field biologist, trails worker to restoration ecologist. She currently lives in the foothills of the Washington Cascades where she works behind the scenes at Wilderness Awareness School and gets out birding whenever she can. Her essays have been published in a variety of literary journals; Going Feral is her first book. In this collection of deeply personal and intellectually curious essays, Heather Durham explores wild America weaving the unique perspectives of trained ecologist, inquisitive philosopher, and restless nomad, probing intricacies of the natural world as profoundly as she does herself. She wanders from New England vernal pools to Pacific Northwest salmon runs, Rocky Mountain pine forests to Desert Southwest sage flats in search of adventure, solace, authenticity, and belonging in the more-than-human world. Part scientifically-informed nature writing, part soul-searching memoir, Going Feral is the story of a human animal learning to belong to the earth.
